Union Calendar No. 1078
81st Congress, 2d Session

House Report No. 3123

REPORT ON

THE
NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
Legal Bulwark of the Communist Party

SEPTEMBER 17. 1950
(Orisinal release date)

September 21, 1950.-Commirred to the Committee of the Whole House
on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed

Prepared and Released by the
COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES, U. S.HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
W ASHlNGTON. D. C.

COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES U. S. HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES
EIGHTY-FIRST CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION

*

Chairman

JOHN S. WOOD, Georgia,
FRANCIS

E.

WALTER, Pennsylvania

BURR P. HARRISON, Virginia
JOHN MCSWEENEY, Ohio
MORGAN M. MOULDER, Missouri
RICHARD M. NIXON, California
FRANCIS CASE, South Dakota
HAROLD H. VELDE, Illinois
BERNARD W. KEARNEY,

New

*

York

Counsel
Senior Investigator
JOHN W. CARRINGTON, Clerk oj Committee
BENJAMIN MANDEL, Director oj Research
FRANK S. TAVENNER, Jr.,

LOUIS J. RUSSELL,

II

Union Calendar No. 1078
SlST CONGRESS}

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES {

12d Session

REPORT

No. 3123

REPORT ON THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD-LEGAL
BULWARK OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY

SEPTEMBER 21, 1950.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
State of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. WOOD, from the Committee on Un-American Activities, submitted
the following

REPORT
[Pursuant to H. Res. 5, 79th Cong., 1st sess.]

The National Lawyers Guild is the foremost legal bulwark of the
Communist Party, its front organizations, and controlled unions.
Since its inception it has never failed to rally to the legal defense of the
Communist Party and individual members thereof, including known
espionage agents. It has consistently fought against national, State,
and local legislation aimed at curbing the Communist conspiracy.
It has been most articulate in its attacks upon all agencies of the
Government seeking to expose or prosecute the subversive activities
of the Communist network, including national, State, and local
investigative committees, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and
law enforcement agencies generally. Through its affiliation with the
International Association of Democratic Lawyers, an international
. Communist-front organization, the National Lawyers Guild has
constituted itself an agent of a foreign principal hostile to the interests
of the United States. It has gone far afield to oppose the foreign
policies of the United States, in line with the current line of the Soviet
Union.
These aims-the real aims of the National Lawyers Guild, as
demonstrated conclusively by its activities for the past 13 years of
its existence-are not specified in its constitution or statement of
avowed purpose. In order to attract non-Communists to serve as a
cover for its actual purpose as an appendage to the Communist Party,
the National Lawyers Guild poses benevolently as u a professional
organization which shall function as an effective social force in the
service of the people to the end that human rights shall be regarded
as more sacred than property rights." In the entire history of the
guild there is no record of its ever having condemned such instances
1

2

THE NATIONAL. LAWYERS GUILD

of the violation of human rights as found in Soviet slave labor camps
and in the series of Moscow trials, which shocked the civilized world.
The National Lawyers Guild was formally organized at a convention held in the Washington Hotel in Washington, D. C., on February
19-22, 1937. National headquarters were established in the Nation's
Capital, where they remain today.
Communists publicly hailed the founding of the National Lawyers
Guild. New Masses, a weekly publication of the Communist Party,
featured an article entitled "Defense for the Counsel-The Need for
the National Lawyers Guild" in its issue of June 14, 1938 (pp. 19-21).
This article, written by Charles Recht, an attorney for the Soviet
Government and a member of the guild, observed thatWith the growth of the American Labor Party in New York, and kindred
progressive movements throughout the United States, the lawyers, who in many
of the smaller communities are the nerve centers of political activities, will be an
invaluable aid in galvanizing the latent liberal elements of the country into a
political force. The National Lawyers Guild can and will form one of the most
important adjuncts to a progressive movement representing the interests of the
workers and farmers.

The International Labor Defense, which was cited by former
Attorney General Francis Biddle as "the legal arm of the Communist
Party," also enthusiastically welcomed the new front, the National
Lawyers Guild. The ILD stated in its 1936-37 yearbook thatThe emergence of the National Lawyers Guild is regarded by the International
Labor Defense as a heartening expression of the devotion of thousands of American
attorneys to the American principle of democracy, and a concrete step on their
part in the struggle to maintain and enlarge democratic rights (p. 64).

Earl Browder, testifying before the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities on September 6, 1939, in his capacity as general
secretary of the Communist Party, admitted that the National
Lawyers Guild was a Communist transmission belt.
This has been corroborated by Louis F. Budenz, former member of
the National Committee of the Communist Party and one-time
managing editor of its official newspaper, the Daily Worker. Testifying before the House Committee on Un-American Activities on
April 3, 1946, Mr. Budenz described the National Lawyers Guild as
a working ally of the Communist Party and stated that members of
the guild would be under the influence of the party while "officers
would be Communists or fellow travelers." Testifying again before
the committee on July 20, 1948, Mr. Budenz said:
In the National Lawyers Guild there is a complete duplicate of the Communist
Party's hopes and aspirations in that field, although there are a number of nonCommunists in the National Lawyers Guild. In fact, some of their lawyers
locally are not Communists, but they play the Communililt game either wittingly
or unwittingly.
INTERCEDES FOR INDIVIDUAL COMMUNISTS

The National Lawyers Guild, as. an organization, has intervened in
the major court cases which have involved individual Communist
leaders or officials of Communist-front organizations or unions. In
every instance, the guild has interceded on the Communist side.
The guild submitted a brief amicus curiae in the case of Robert
Wood, an Oklahoma Communist official who was convicted of criminal
syndicalism in that State in 1940. When, in the same year, avowed
Communist Ben Gold and other leaders of the Communist-controlled

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

3

Fur and Leather Workers Union were convicted in court of using
terrorism in the labor field, the National Lawyers Guild again appeared
as a friend of the court in behalf of the defendants.
A resolution opposing deportation proceedings against Communist
Harry Bridges was adopted by the fifth convention of the National
Lawyers Guild in 1941. The guild also submitted a brief amicus
curiae in the case.
In recent years, the National Lawyers Guild has intervened as
amicus curiae on behalf of the following leading Communists:
Gerhart Eisler, Communist international agent convicted in
United States courts of passport fraud and contempt of Congress;
Leon Josephson, Communist attorney exposed as an official
procurer of false passports for Communist agents such as Gerhart
Eisler; Josephson was convicted of contempt of Congress;
Carl Aldo Marzani, convicted of concealing Communist affiliations while employed by the United States Government;
John Howard Lawson and Dalton Trumbo, Communist screen
writers from Hollywood convicted of contempt of Congress;
Eugene Dennis, secretary of the Communist Party, U. S. A.,
convicted of contempt of Congress.
The National Lawyers Guild also intervened in behalf ofRichard Morjord, who as head of the subversive National Council of American-Soviet Friendship was convicted of contempt of
Congress;
George Marshall, head of the now-defunct Communist front,
the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties, also
convicted of contempt of Congress;
Edward K. Barsky and other officers of the subversive Joint
Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, convicted of contempt of
Congress;
Eleven top officials oj the Communist Party, U. S. A., convicted
of conspiracy to advocate the overth.row of the United States
Government by force and violence.
The committee is reproducing below a list of Kational Lawyers
Guild members who have represented witnesses before the Committee
on Un-American Activities. In each case, the witnesses have refused
to answer questions regarding Communist affiliations propounded by
the committee. In a number of cases espionage activities were
involved. It should be noted in this connection that it is standard
Communist practice to accept as attorneys only those who agree to
abide by the party's propaganda and conspirative directives. Cases
are known where attorneys who have volunteered their services have
been summarily rejected because they would not become partners to
the party's ulterior purposes.

4

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

Attorneys

Witnesses

EMANUEL H. BLOCH, 270 Broadway, New York, N. Y_ Marion Bachrach.
_
Steve Nelson
.
_
_._ . .do
.
_
_. do
_
Marcel Scherer_.
_
_
MAURICE BRAVERMAN, 15 South Gay St., Baltimore, Addie Rosen
William Rosen.•• _
_
Md.
____ .do..
_
HAROLD CAMMER, 9 East 40th St., New York, N. Y __ John J. Abt.
_
___ ._do
_
_
Charles Kramer__ .
Lee Pressman.
_
Elizabeth Sasuly_.
._. _
Nathan WitL ..
._.
_
____ .do__..
_
ALBERT L. COLLOMS, 170 Broadway, New York, N. Y_ Clarence F. Hiskey
_
____ .do__ .
.
_
Marcia Sand (Hiskey)
_
BARTLEY CRUM, 598 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y_ Lester Cole.
.
. _
Edward Dmytryk
.
.
_
Ring Lardner, Jr
.
_
John Howard Lawson
_
SamueIOmitz
.
.
. __
Adrian Scott. __ •
_
Dalton Trumbo
_
_
MITCHELL A. DUBOW, 705 Knickerbocker Bldg., Balti· Maurice Braverman
more, !\tId.
_
CLIFFORD J. DURR, 1625 K St, NW., Washington, John Anderson
Rose Anderson
_
D.C.
David Joseph Bohm
_
__ .. do
_
Irving David Fox_ ..
_
Mary Jane Keeney
_
__ . __ do
_
Philip O. Keeney . __ .
.
Ken Max Manfred
~'
_
Frank F. Oppenheimer.
.
.
Jacquenette Oppenheimer_ ..
_
Bella Rodman __ .
_
Samuel J. Rodman __ .
_
Toma
Babin.
._
..
__
..
..
_
JOSEPH FORER, 1105 K St. NW., Washington, D. C _
P. L. James Branca_.
.
Louise Berman (Bransten)
_
____ .do
_
Maurice Braverman_.
..
_
Hanns Eisler._ ..
.
_
Margaret C. Hinckley
.
_
William W. Hinckley__ .
_
..
Alexander KoraL
Elsa K. Miller
_
Tilla Minowitz
_
Helen Travis_.
..
_
• __ ._.
_
IRA GOLLOBIN, 1441 Broadway, New York, N. Y
_ Charles Kramer
._. _
Victor Perlo .
.
_
HERMAN A. GREENBERG, 1105 K St. NW., Washing- Hanns Eisler
ton, D. C.
_
BERNARD JAFFE, 52 Broadway, New York, N. Y
.. Abraham George Silverman
____ .do
.
... __ .
_
._._ .• _
R~~f~: w. KENNY, 250 North Hope St., Los Angeles, Herbert Biberman._.
Lester COle
.
.. __ ..
_
Edward Dmytryk
.. _._. __ . _
Ring Lardner, Jr..
.
.
_
John Howard Lawson
.
. _
SamueIOmitz_.
_
Adrian Scott__ ..
.
_
Dalton Trumbo
.. _.
._
._ ..
CAROL KING, 220 Broadway, New York, N. Y __ .
_ Gerhart Eisler
Alexander Stevens (J. Peters) ._
•
. _
EDWARD KUNTZ, 207 4th Ave. New York, N. Y __ . _ Samuel Liptzen
.
_
HARRY C. LAMBERTON, 1645 Conneeticut Ave. NW., Henry H. Collins
Washington, D. C.
_
DANIEL LAPIDUS, 100 5th Ave., New York, N. Y
._ Eugene Dennis
_
LEO PRAEGER,401 Broadway, New York, N. Y
.. Alexander KoraL
_
DAVID REIN, 1105 K St. NW., Washington, D. C__ . __ Frank HashmaIL
.
_
Charlotte Oram.
Nathan Gregory Silvermaster
_
William Ludwig UlImann
_
.. __
_.
_
DAVID ScRIBNER, 11 East 51st St., New York, N. Y._. Julius Emspak
James Matles
__ . __ ._.• __
Esther M. Tice
.
.
_
Robert C. Whisner
._ .. _

Dates of
appearance
Dec. 14,1948
Sept. 14, 1948
Apr. 26,1949
June 8,1949
June 21,1950
Sept. 8,1948
Aug. 26,1948
Sept. 9,1948
Aug. 20,1948
Sept. 1, 1950
Do.
Aug. 20,1948
July 12,1949
Aug. 20,1948
Sept. 1,1950
Sept. 9,1948
May 24,1949
Sept. 9, 1948
Oct. 30, 1947
Oct. 29,1947
Oct. 30,1947
Oct. 27,1947
Oct. 29, 1947
Do.
Oct. 28,1947
Sept. 9,1948
June 29, 1949
June 28, 1949
May 25,1949
June 10,1949
Sept. 27,1949
May 24,1949
June 9,1949
Do.
Sept. 14,1949
June 14,1949
Do.
June 28, 1949
July 28,1949
May 27,1949
June 29, 1949
Sept. 20, 1948
Nov. 7,1949
Sept. 9, 1948
Sept. 24, 1947
June 8,1950
Do.
Aug. 9,1948
July 6,1949
Do.
Aug. 30,1950
Aug. 12, 1948
Aug. 9,1948
Sept. 24,1947
Aug. 12,1948
Aug. 31,1950
Oct. 29,1947
Oct. 30, 1947
Oct. 29, 1947
Oct. 30, 1947
Oct. 27, 1947
Oct. 29, 1947
Do.
Oct. 28, 1947
Feb. 6,1947
Aug. 30,1948
Mar. 5,1947
Aug. 11, 1948
Apr. 9,1947
Aug. 9,1948
July 14, 1950
June 28,1949
Aug. 4, 1948
Aug. 10, 1948
Dec. 5,1949
Do.
July 15, 1950
Aug. 10, 1949

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

5

The committee does not dispute the right of witnesses appearing
before it to have the benefit of counsel. However, the committee
believes that the attorneys mentioned above knowingly or unknowingly function under a directive issued by the Central Control Commission of the Communist Party which prohibits its members from
cooperating with the committee when subpenaed before it. Cases are
known where persons subpenaed before the committee indicated a
willingness to cooperate with the committee, but when these persons
consulted certain of the attorneys listed above they refused to answer
questions put to them by the committee.
CONTEMPT FOR AMERICAN COURTS

The real nature of the guild's philosophy comes into sharp focus
during court procedures. Almost without exception, its leading
members, despite their oath as lawyers to uphold the dignity of the
court and respect the constitutional mores of jurisprudence, seek to
bring the courts and its procedures into disrepute. They substitute
insult for argument, resort to intimidation of judges by picket lines,
parades, and personal abuse. In other words, these leaders of the
National Lawyers Guild have followed standard Cummunist practice
which provides thatA Communist must utilize a political trial to help on the revolutionary struggle.
Our tactics in the public proceedings of the law courts are not tactics of defense
but of attack. Without clinging to legal formalities, the Communist must use
the trial as a means of bringing his indictments against the dominant capitalist
regime and of courageously voicing the views of his party (Johannes Buchner,
The Agent Provocateur in the Labour Movement, Workers Library Publishers,
New York, pp. 51-52).

Federal Judge Harold Medina, in citing for contempt the attorneys
who defended the 11 Communists convicted in New York of advocating
the overthrow of the United States Government by force and violence,
noted the frequent, and deliberate efforts on the part of the guild
attorneys to inject Communist propaganda into the trial. Medina
handed down sentences of contempt of court to the following attorneys
for the Communists, all of whom are members of the National Lawyers
Guild: Richard Gladstein, 6 months; George Crockett, 4 months;
Maurice Sugar, 30 days; Louis McCabe, 4 months; Abraham Isserman,
4 months; Harry Sacher, 6 months.
Abraham L. Pomerantz, a member of the guild, appeared as defense
attorney for Valentin Gubitchev, a Russian charged with spying
against the United States. Pomerantz based most of his questions on
notes passed to him by a representative of the Soviet Embassy, seated
at his side during the trial. The Russian official, an agent of the
NKVD (Soviet secret police) named Novikoff, literally stage-managed
the Gubitchev defense, a procedure without precedent in United
States court history.
Not only has the behavior of guild attorneys been noted officially by
several Federal judges, but the American Bar Association in 1949
received from its board of governors a recommendation that the
American Bar Association bar from membership any person holding
membership in the National Lawyers Guild. The action was based
on the grounds that guild lawyers held beliefs "incompatible with
.
membership in the American Bar Association."

6

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

ATTACKS ON THE FBI

Any action on legislative or executive levels of the Government
which tends to interfere with the Communist fifth-column operations
in this country is guaranteed to evoke a vicious campaign of opposition
from the National Lawyers Guild.
A striking example is the present attack by the guild on the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, echoing the current line of the Daily Worker
and Moscow. The guild today is crying for an investigation of the
FBI, the vigilant guardian of our national security, on the ridiculous
grounds that it is a "gestapo" or "political police" whosepractices and policies *
threaten our democracy.

* *

violate our laws, infringe our liberties, and

This attack was timed simultaneously with the tactics employed by
the defense in the espionage case involving Judith Coplon.
This campaign is simply an intensification of a long-standing guild
effort to discredit and vitiate the Federal Bureau of Investigation. At
its fifth annual convention in 1941, the guild also took action opposing
"the gestapo activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation." At
that time, the guild called for removal of FBI Director J. Edgar
Hoover, demanded that Congress reduce the FBI appropriation, and
registered opposition to apending appropriation bill to allot that Bureau $100,000 for the investigation of
so-called subversive activities of Government employees (Lawyers Guild Review,
June 1941, p. 66).

J. Edgar Hoover, testifying on February 7, 1950 before a Senate
Subcommittee on AppropriatIOns, noted that the National Lawyers
Guild has vociferously denounced the FBI since 1940. Mr. Hoover
quoted a guild member as having stated the following at a meeting of
this front organization in 1940:
If we keep up the constant criticism of the FBI and of Hoover, and if this
criticism is systematically kept up and followed all the time, particularly by
organizations, it can and it will weaken the power of the FBI and hamper them
very effectively.

There is no doubt in the opinion of the committee that the National
Lawyers Guild attacks on the Federal Bureau of Investigation are
part of an over-all Communist strategy aimed at weakening our
Nation's defenses against the international Communist conspiracy.
The propaganda disseminated by the guild regarding the FBI is a
duplicate of the line put out by Moscow, as demonstrated by the
following broadcast by the Soviet Home Service short-wave network,
dated February 7, 1950:
FBI CENTER

OF

ACTIVITIES

The center of the police terror organization of the United States is the notorious
FBI. This institution was founded in 1908. From the day of its foundation
the FBI became the jailer of the population. The head of this organization is
responsible to the United States President and keeps him informed of future plans
and results of past activity. The true bosses of the FBI, however, are the 60
families of American millionaires. All of the activities of the FBI as well as the
rest of the United States Government are directed toward the defense of the
interests of these actual rulers of modern America.
The FBI has been turned into an organization for intimidating the United
States man in the street by means of all forms of violence, blackmail, terror, and
other police meaSUres. The monopoly press knows no limit to its praise of the
FBI, which was some time ago pronounced by the UP to be "the greatest national

7

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

institution of the United States." The FBI budget grows yearly. In 1949 it
was almost * * * dollars. To this must be added the so-called IIpecial funds
allocated by the President and the Government and the generous and certainly
not insignificant presents from the monopolies who wish to develop still further
the regime of police terror with a view to the final subjugation of the American
people.
SUPPRESSION OF PROGRESSIVES

At a time when the United States is the mainstay of the greatest imperialist
offensive, the FBI has openly become the tool of hysterical, imperialist reaction
determined to suppress all progressive thought in the country. The kings of
Wall Street, the FBI, and the United States Department of Justice act in close
contact with the ultrareactionary Committee for the Investigation of Un-American
Activities.

The attitude of the National Lawyers Guild and the Moscow
broadcasts bears a striking resemblance to the following editorial of
the Daily Worker of June 13, 1950, page 7:
ALIBI FOR STOOL PIGEONS

America's No.1 lawbreaker, J. Edgar Hoover, wants more stool pigeons.
His private police machine gets bigger and bigger every year. This government within the government taps phones illegally, opens private mail illegally,
and infests American life with criminal perjurors. As it grows, it devours what is
left of the United States Constitution. No secret political police can ever be
justified on the basis of the American Constitution. This police makes its own
laws and its own rules and operates with its own definitions of "disloY,alty" and
"subversion."

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

The boss of this imitation-Gestapo now wants more money from Congress for
more secret stoolies. Naturally, he can only get his dough if he drums up a
picture of the terrible menace we face from the "Communists." The FBI's
"thought control" boss hints that there are 540,000 Americans he would like to
put in jail. He says they are "operatives" who are just crawling all over J.
Edgar Hoover looking for our "secrets." * * *
AGAINST LOYALTY PROGRAM

The National Lawyers Guild has also conducted a malicious campaign against the loyalty program, which was inaugurated under
Executive Order 9835, on March 21, 1947, in the executive branch of
the Government, to rid the Government of subversive and disloyal
employees.
Resolutions attacking the loyalty program as illegal and demanding
that the courts declare it unconstitutional were adopted at the national convention of the guild held in New York City in May 1950.
At a public forum held under guild auspices on February 11, 1948, the
loyalty program was attacked as a thought-control measure.
The guild's opposition to the loyalty program was compiled into a
23-page report entitled "The Constitutional Right to Advocate
Political, Social, and Economic Changes-An Essential of Democracy," which was sent to Government officials, Members of Congress,
the judiciary, the bar, labor and civic organizations. The conclusion
of this report charged that "our citizens are denied the right to advocate fundamental social, economic, and political change."
.
The guild has denounced the Attorney General's listing of subversive organizations to be used in the Federal loyalty program as a
menace to the liberty of the American people. The Guild's committee
on constitutional rights and liberties has issued a report on the legality
of the action of the Attorney General of the United States in issuing
H. Rept. 3123, 81-2-2

8

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

a listing of organizations as subversive pursuant to the President's
loyalty order, in which it urged revocation and cancellation of the list.
OPPOSES LEGISLATIVE ACTION ON COMMUNISM

Any legislation which would curb the activities of Communists,
regardless of the importance of such legislation to our national security,
is faced with bitter opposition from the National Lawyers Guild.
At its first convention, the guild opposed statutes providing that
teachers take a loyalty oath or those "making criminal advocacy of or
membership in any political party" (J)aily Worker, February 23,1937,
p. 5). The latter was directed against pending legislation against
criminal syndicalism, affecting the legal status of the Communist
Party in various States.
It has opposed legislation directed against the Communist Party,
Voorhis registration bill, H. R. 1054; the Tenney law in Califorma
barring the Communist Party from the ballot (Lawyers Guild Review,
June 1941, p. 66; Daily Worker, May 18, 1942, p. 5).
The National Lawyers Guild denounced the anti-Communist provisions of the Taft-Hartley law on the ground that it was unconstitutional. Leonard B. Boudin, chairman of the labor law committee of
the National Lawyers Guild, testified before a labor subcommittee of
the House of Representatives concerning the non-Communist affidavit
of the Taft-Hartley bill. At that time, Mr. Boudin stated that the
non-Communist affidavit was an insult to the American worker
because Congress thereby told the workers they were not wise enough
to manage their own affairs.
On May 7,1948, the National Lawyers Guild denounced the MundtNixon bill to control subversive activities. In commenting on the
Mundt-Nixon bill, the Lawyers Guild Review, bimonthly publication
of the National Lawyers Guild, made the following statement:
It would be a costly error to treat this measure as merely another unwise legislative proposal to be analyzed and then routinely disapproved. We believe it is
far more than that. Its concepts are so hostile to our democratic way of life that
its enactment into law would amount to nothing less than a coup d'etat in constitutional guise.

The parallel between the above opinion and that of Simon W. Gerson, who represented the Communist Party, U. S. A., before the Committee on Un-American Activities on May 2, 1950, is striking. We
quote his comment in part:
Any bill which seeks such objectives will necessarily do force and violence to the
American Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Let us therefore understand the
issue clearly: The United States can have the Constitution or it can have the
Mundt-Nixon bill. It can't have both.

On May 2, 1950, Harry C. Lamberton, representing the National
Lawyers Guild, testified before the Committee on Un-American
Activities against the Nixon bill (H. R. 7595).
In the July 14, !1949, :issuel of I'the !Daily lWorker, "the 'National
LawyerR Guild was reported as) urging the defeat of the Government's bill to fix heavier;penalties"for unlawful 'possession of secret
documents, as referred to in the Foreign Agents Registration Act,
and to lengthen the statute of limitations on prosecution of peacetime
spies.

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

9

The autumn 1949 issue of The Guild Lawyer listed the following as
highlights of the guild's activities:
(a) Opposition to S. 595 and H. R. 4703 (internal security bill) as written, and
urging drastic revisions to conform to constitutional guaranties;
(b) Opposition to S. 1694 and S. 1832, giving Attorney General authority to
deport aliens associated with or aiding groups which he finds (without standards or
hearings) are "subversive of 'Communist' controlled";
(c) Opposition to H. R. 1002 to require labeling, as issued by a "Communist-front
organization," of anything mailed by a group which engages in activity which it is
reasonable to blilieve is intended to further the objective of establishing here a
Communist government or economic system, or if the group is "under Communist
control or influence".

The National Lawyers Guild has submitted a brief amicus curiae
in an attempt to obtain a Supreme Court reversal of Maryland's Ober
law which outlaws all organizations advocating the overthrow of the
Government of the United States or of the State of Maryland (The
Guild Lawyer, spring, 1950, p. 7).
At its tenth national convention in New York in May 1950, the
guild demanded a repeal of the "advocacy sections" of the Smith
Act, under which the 11 top Communist officials in the United States
were convicted (Daily Compass, May 8, 1950, p. 5).
AGAINST COMMITTEES INVESTIGATING SUBVERSIVE
ACTIVITIES

Not only has the guild opposed legislation directed against the
Communist Party, but it has also fought every committee which has
been effective in exposing Communist activity.
The guild has opposed the Rapp-Coudert committee investigating
subversive activities in the public school system of New York City,
for example. It has also opposed the York committee investigating
subversive activities among State employees of California; the Ellis
committee investigating subversive activities in the New York Civil
Service; and the Special Committee on Un-American Activities,
predecessor of the present House Committee on Un-American
Activities.
.
Abolition of the present Committee on Un-American Activities is
called for by the National Lawyers Guild. A resolution to this effect
was adopted at the guild's ninth national convention held in Detroit,
Mich., in February 1949. Typical of the guild propaganda regarding
the Committee on Un-American Activities is the following statement
in January 1948 by the then Guild President Robert Kenny:
For years I have been saying that it was my opinion that the Un-American
Activitiefl Committee had no foundation in law, had no power to compel disclosures, and that their procedures were improper.

It would appear that the guild is not so much concerned over
alleged violations of "democratic processes" as it is over the possible
exposure of the Communist fifth column.
In this connection, it might be recalled that in 1940 the Special
Committee on Un-American Activities conducted investigations which
led to the exposure of wholesale fraud and corruption in Communist
Party election petitions in many States. More than 100 indictments
and between 50 and 60 convictions resulted from this investigation.
The National Lawyers Guild, however, addressed a communication

10

THE KATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

to the Attorney General of the United States suggesting an injunction
against the committee to restrain it from investigating the petition
frauds.
Such obstructionist tactics are a regular part of guild procedure
whenever an investigation of communism is concerned.
FOLLOWING THE

COM~MUNIST

PARTY LINE

The National Lawyers Guild has faithfully followed the Communist
Party line throughout its existence.
In the mid-1930's whon the Communist line called for collective
security against the Fascist aggressors, the National Lawyers Guild
dutifully called for the repeal of the existing Neutrality Act (Lawyers
Guild Quarterly, June 1938, p. 255) and opposed shipments of ammunition to Germany (ibid., September 1938, p. 304).
A crisis arose in this Communist front in February 1939 when nonCommunist liberals who had been ensnared into the guild demanded
that guild resolutions include condemnation of communism as well as
nazism and fascism. To avoid a mass exodus of these liberals, the
Communist behind-the-scenes leaders in the guild temporized and
permitted a resolution to pass which opposed communism. Shortly
thereafter, the Hitler-Stalin pact was signed and the conflict between
the Communists and the non-Communists in the guild increased.
The conflict was resolved in favor of the Communists when the June
1940 guild convention resulted in the election of the fellow-traveler,
Robert W. Kenny, as guild president, and numerous other officers of the
same ilk. During this controversy it was announced for the first time,
on June 6, 1940, that the executive board had adopted in December 1939
a resolution against the Soviet attack on Finland. But the guild did
not again buck the party line during the Stalin-Hitler pact. In fact,
until the end of the pact in June 1941, the guild actually aided the
Nazi-Communist alliance with thinly veiled attacks on United States
legislation dealing with conscription and antisabotage measures.
•. ~ When the crisis in the National Lawyers Guild was resolved during
the Stalin-Hitler pact in favor of the Communists in the guild, nonCommunists resigned en masse. In many instances, these nonCommunists publicly repudiated the guild as being a Communist
organization. Typical of their comments are the following:
~ From a letter of resignation of Nathan B. Margold, Solicitor for
the Department of the Interior, dated May 29, 1940:
In recent elections for delegates from the District of Columbia to the 1940
convention of the National Lawyers Guild, a group of candidates stood on a platform of unequivocal opposition to nazism, communism, fascism, and other movements which similarly reject the principles of free press, free speech, freedom of
assembly, right of religious worship, and fair trials. These candidates understood,
if elected as delegates, to cast their votes at the 1940 convention for national officers of the guild who share their views. Of the 20 candidates who stood on this
platform, 14 were defeated.

A. A. Berle, Jr., Assistant Secretary of State, resigned with the
following statement:
The National Lawyers Guild was formed in the hope that expression might be
given to the liberal sentiment in the American bar.
It is now obvious that the present management of the guild is not prepared to
take any stand which conflicts with the Communist Party line. Under these
circumstances, and in company, I think, with the most progressive lawyers, I have
no further interest in it (Washington Times-Herald, June 5, 1940).

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

11

Attorney General Robert H. Jackson had resigned the previous
week. Charles Poletti, Lieutenant Governor of New York State,
resigned because he understood some members of the guild were "more
interested in communism than anything else" (New York Times,
June 26, 1940, p. 14).
Paul R. Hays, a prominent New York attorney, summarized the
situation as follows in his letter of May 21, 1940, to Prof. Herman A.
Gray, which was circularized among members of the New York
chapter:
My experience, and the experience of many others (including the present
national and New York chapter presidents), who have been similarly active in
the guild and other liberal organizations, has led us to the conclusion that the
presence of Communists in policy-making positions in such Ql'ganizations inevitably results in deflection of the organizations froin the liberal ends which they
were set up to achieve. This is true because Communists are devoted to achieving the ends of another organization, whose purposes are illiberal and at variance
with the purposes of such organizations as the guild.

With Germany's attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the
Communist Party line changed immediately. The war ceased being
imperialistic in the eyes of the Communists, and the National Lawyers
Guild suddenly took a similar view of the situation. On October 4,
1941, the guild adopted the following resolution:
The National Lawyers Guild accordingly gives its unlimited support to all
measures necessary to the defeat of Hitlerism and to the present Roosevelt
policy of "all out aid" to and full collaboration with Great Britain, the Soveit
Union, China, and other nations resisting Fascist aggression and to all further
steps necessary for the military defeat of Hitlerism (Lawyers Guild Review,
October 1941).

This meeting also urged the repeal of the Neutrality Act.
The end of World War II introduced a new Communist Party line
which is one of extreme hostility to the United States Government
and all of its defense efforts against the postwar aggressions of the
Soviet Union. The present policy of the National Lawyers Guild
coincides with this new line almost completely. The guild opposes
our military training programs and other internal security measures,
and it condemns the entire European recovery program and North
Atlantic Pact which are Stalin's chief anathema on the European
front. The guild views as "democracies" the new Communist.
satellite governments in eastern Europe, and encourages the Communist revolutionary movements in Korea, Indonesia, and China.
The guild is demanding United States Government recognition of the
Red regime in China. All of these viewpoints are also found in the
Daily Worker, official organ of the Communist Party in this country.
There is some evidence to indicate, however, that in recent months
a split may be again developing in the membership of the National
Lawyers Guild. This time, in contrast to the crisis of 1940, the split
is rather between those pro-Communists who support Stalin only,
and those on the other hand who want to support Stalin and Tito
and call for a united front between the two dictators.
At the tenth national convention of the guild held in New York
City in May 1950, a resolution was adopted reversing the action of two
guild delegates who voted at Rome to expel the Yugoslav delegates
from the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. The
latter organization is an international Communist-front for lawyers,

12

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

of which the National Lawyers Guild is an affiliate. The international
group will be dealt with in a later section of this report.
Apparently the guild conflict between Titoites and Stalinists is not
too serious at the present time, for the Daily Worker, official organ of
the Communist Party, continues to promote and publicize the National
Lawyers Guild. The Daily Worker attributed the guild's pro-Tito
resolution to "0. John Rogge, who is admittedly on the payroll of the
Tito regime" and gave this warning to the guild:
If the progressive attorneys who courageously challenged the cold-war blackout of civil liberty here will get the facts on the Tito conspiracy, they will have no
difficulty seeing that in falling for the Tito bait they fell for bait planted by the
reactionary forces they are opposing (Daily Worker, May 11, 1950, p. 7).

Included in the appendix to this report will be found an exhaustive
analysis of propaganda issued by the National Lawyers Guild and
that issued on the same subject by the Communist Party. This
analysis shows that the guild and the Communist Party have taken
the same and sometimes simultaneous stand on a host of important
issues and should resolve any doubts regarding the fealty of the guild
for the line of the party.
Another early front for lawyers was the International Juridical
Association. This was formed in 1931 and its members were closely
interlocked with the International Labor Defense as well as the
National Lawyers Guild. Among its prominent members was Alger
Hiss.
INTERNATIONAL JURIDICAL ASSOCIATION

In 1922, the Communist International established the International
Red Aid with the idea that it would have sections in various countries
of the world. The purpose of such organizations in the language of
the Communist International wasto render material and moral aid to the imprisoned victims of capitalism * * *
(Resolutions and Theses of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International,
published for the Communist International by the Communist Party of Great
Britain, p. 87).

In plain language, this meant that the Communists wanted to provide
an agency which would protect their subversive agents whenever they
ran into difficulties with the law of the various countries in which
they were operating.
An American section of the International Red Aid was established
in 1925 and it was known here as the International Labor Defense.
The International Labor Defense continued to function until 1946,
when it merged into a new subversive organization known as the Civil
Rights Congress. The International Juridical Association cooperated
closely with the International Labor Defense.
The following leaders of the National Lawyers Guild have been
actively associated with both the International Labor Defense and
the International Juridical Association: Joseph R. Brodsky (deceased),
a charter member of the Communist Party; David J. Bentall, Osmond
K. Fraenkel, Walter Gellhorn, Herman A. Gray, Abraham J. Isserman,
Paul J. Kern, Carol Weiss King, Edward Lamb, Louis F. McCabe,
and Maurice Sugar.
The International Juridical Association actively defended Communists and consistently followed the Communist Party line. The
Special Committee on Un-American Activities cited the organization
ass. front in a report dated March 29, 1944.

THE NATIONAL LAWYE'RS GUILD

13

At the time of its inception, Isadore Polier was executive director,
Carol King was secretary, and Joseph Kover editor of the International
Juridical Association's montWy bulletin. An examination of the
bulletin reveals consistent support of Communist legal cases during its
entire career.
In fact, the New York City Council Committee Investigating the
Municipal Civil Service Committee in 1940 and 1941 declared:
The bulletins of the International Juridical Association from its very inception
show that it is devoted to the defense of the Communist Party, Communists, and
radical agitators and that it is not limited merely to legal research but to sharp
criticism of existing governmental agencies and defense of subversive groups.

The International Juridical Association quietly disappeared.Jrom
the American scene in the early 1940's.
In 1942, the IJA MontWy Bulletin, a publication of the International Juridical Association, was combined with the Lawyers Guild
Review, an official organ of the National Lawyers Guild. The December 1942 issue of the IJA Monthly Bulletin, in announcing the merger,
indicated that the opportunity for joining forces with the National
Lawyers Guild would "greatly widen the area of our influence."
It was also announced that writers for the IJA Monthly Bulletin
who remained available would go to the board of editors of the Lawyers
Guild Review and take primary responsibility for the material in the
IJA section of the Review.
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF DEMOCRATIC LAWYERS

The current international Communist front for attorneys is known
as the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. This
organization is sometimes referred to as the International Association
of Democratic Jurists.
The idea for the International Association of Democratic Lawyers
was conceived during the Nuremberg trials as a threat to all those
considered as "war criminals" by Soviet militarists. The first congress
met in October 1946 with some 15 countries represented.
The National Lawyers Guild immediately affiliated with the new
international front and sent representatives to the first congress in
1946.
Communist leaders in the United States, recently convicted on
conspiracy to advocate overthrow of the Government by force and
violence, are being vigorously defended by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers.
At the close of its third congress, held in Prague, Czechoslovakia,
in September 1948, the International Association of Democratic
Lawyers voted to send 25 attorneys to observe the trial of the aforementioned Communist leaders in New York. This proposal was
made by Martin Popper, American representative. A resolution
was also unanimously adopted expressing "grave concern over the
indictment of the American Communist leaders in New York."
The fourth congress of the International Association of Democratic
Lawyers met in Rome in October-November 1949, with 30 affiliate
national sections. According to the autumn 1949 issue of The Guild
Lawyer, quarterly publication of the National Lawyers Guild,
Executive Secretary Robert J. Silberstein, and William L. Standard,
a member of the guild's national executive board, were sent as guild
representatives to the fourth congress.

14

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

The following national sections were represented in the congress
by their delegations: Albania, Argentina, Austria, French Black
Africa, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, France, Germany,
Great Britain, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Iraq, Iran, Luxemburg,
Poland, Rumania, Republican Spain, Soviet Union, Switzerland,
Syria, Tunisia, and the U. S. A. The theme of the fourth congress
was "law in the service of peace," in line with the current "peace
offensive" of the international Communist apparatus.
The following were among the resolutions which were adopted:
(1) The Resolution on the Necessity of Respect for International
Agreements expressed the view that lawyers have the duty to condemn
actions which violate international engagements and especially when
their own governments are involved. The resolution offered no
criticism of Soviet policy but insisted that the North Atlantic Pact,
which is supported by the United States, is irreconcilable with the
Charter of the United Nations.
(2) Resolution asserting that the prosecution of the leaders of the
Communist Party in the U. S. A. is in violation of articles 19 and 20
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations.
An appeal along this line was then made to UN Secretary General
Trygve Lie.
(3) Resolution protesting strongly the prison sentences for contempt
meted out to the attorneys for the Communist leaders in the United
States.
(4) Clearly intended as a measure of support for Communist insurrections in colonial areas, the Resolution on Dependent Countries
declared that the actual independence of these countries can only be
achieved by national liberation struggle in alliance with the people of
the exploitmg country and the progressives of all countries. In Communist jargon all efforts to subvert democratic countries are referred
to as "liberation struggles." Russia is always the liberator while the
U. S. A. is considered the exploiter. The resolution intended to encourage rebellion in the home country is support of Communist uprisings. The meeting also created a permanent Commission on the
Colonial, Semicolonial, and Dependent Countries.
Commenting on the afore-mentioned convention, The Guild Lawyer
of Autumn 1949 stated that the convention "marked a significant
change in the strength and influence of the progressive lawyers of the
world."
Reflecting the current line of Moscow and the Cominform in its
dispute with Marshal Tito, the Association of Democratic Lawyers
voted to expel the Yugoslavian delegates. This proposal was supported by Robert J. Silberstein, American delegate.
The proceedings of the Association of Democratic Lawyers were
considered of sufficient importance to warrant a report by Soviet
Delegate Kirgin in May 1949 before the Soviet Society for Cultural
Relations with Foreign Countries, the Soviet equivalent of the Nazis
League for Germandom in Foreign Countries. This was made the
subject of a Moscow broadcast on May 11, 1949. In conformance
with the current Soviet "peace offensive," Kirgin urged democratic
lawyers to intensify their fight against war propaganda. He stated
that upon the Soviet delegate's initiative, a reRolution was passed by
the AODL to identify war criminals and publish their names. The
organization has not as yet published the names of those responsible
for the assault upon the peaceful South Korean Republic.

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

15

It was well known that the drive of the World Peace Congress for
endorsement of the so-called Stockholm Appeal and for interference
with Rhipments of material sent by the United States in support of the
Atlantic Defense Pact is the main present objective of international
communism. The following excerpt from the Moscow Home Service
Broadcast of May 21, 19.50, therefore demonstrates how the International Association for Democratic Lawyers functions on an inte.rnational scale to protect the Communist sabotage and espionage apparatus, just as the National Lawyers Guild functions on a national scale:
Among the organizations who have sided with the Stockholm declaration during
the last week are the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and others.
The International Association of Democratic Lawyers has also addressed dockers
and railwaymen refusing to transport war material in a declaration in which they
state that they consider their actions are well-founded from a legal and juridical
point of view because their actions are aimed at the prevention of war crimes.

It should be remembered that the National Lawyers Guild, as a
subordinate of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers,
is in duty bound to comply with this directive in our own country.
At the previous Prague Congress in 1948, the International Association of DemocratiC' Lawyers officially solidarized itself with the Wroclaw
Congress of Intellectuals, attended by a number of leading American
Communists, which devoted itself primarily to assailing the foreign
policies of the United States and extolling the "peace policies" of the
Soviet Union.
According to the Daily Worker of October 19, 1949, page 10, the
Fourth Congress of Democratic Lawyers held in Prague went even
further in its service to international communism. Welcomed by
Klement Gottwald, Communist President of Czechoslovakia, it worked
out a "people's law code," intended as a guide for Communist dictatorships. In concluding the session, Dr. Nordman compared the administration of justice in Communist Czechoslovakia with that of the
western democracies.
"The American Constitution," remarked Nordman, "particularly the first
amendment, guarantees freedom of thought, but we can see in the trial of the
12 Communists in New York that they are being prosecuted only for their
thoughts, only because they are Marxists and the jury is selected not democratically * * *."

Incidentally, Czechoslovakia has been the scene of a number of
recent Communist purge trials in which the right to trial by jury and
accepted juridical practices were ruthlessly violated, without protest
from the Association of Democratic Lawyers for the National Lawyers
Guild.
.
The headquarters of the International Association of Democratic
Lawyers is at 19 Quai d'Orleans in Paris, France. The president of the
organization at the time of its 1949 convention was D. N. Pritt, K. C.,
a British lawyer prominent in the defense of Communist causes. Its
general secretary is Joe Nordman, who recently defended the French
pro-Communist publication, Les Lettres Franc;aise.
GUILD COMMUNISTS AND FELLOW TRAVELERS

The files of the Committee on Un-American Activities show that the
dominant forces in the National Lawyers Guild have been composed
of known Communists and fellow travelers.
.
H. Rept. 3123, &1-2--8

16

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

The committee notes, for example, that John Abt, Lee Pressman,
and Nathan Witt were associated with the National Lawyers Guild
from its inception, and have held positions on the guild's executive
board or on its various committees. Abt, Pressman, and Witt have
been identified as Communist members of an underground group
established by the Communist Party for the purpose of infiltrating
Federal Government agencies. This identification was made by
Whittaker Chambers, confessed former courier for Communist espionage agents. The three indviduals so accused subsequently refused
to submit to congressional inquiry regarding their Communist activities on grounds of self-incrimination.
On August 28, 1950, Lee Pressman again appeared before the committee. This time, he answered questions propounded to him by the
committee. In the course of the questioning, Pressman admitted his
membership in a Communist group in Washington, D. C., during the
years 1934 and 1935. He also identified Nathan Witt and John Abt
as members of this Communist group. On September 1,1950, Nathan
Witt and John Abt again appeared before the committee and refused
to answer all inquiries regarding their Communist activities on the
ground of self-incrimination.
Another initial memher of the National Lawyers Guild was Charles
Recht, who at the same time was attorney for the Soviet Embassy
in the United States. Still another charter member was Joseph R.
Brodsky, general counsel and charter member of the Communist
Party, now deceased. The National Lawyers Guild; at its 1948
national convention, unanimously adopted a special resolution regarding the death of Mr. Brodsky which stated:
His death is an inestimable loss to the profession and to the National Lawyers
Guild of which he was a charter member.

Martin Popper, one of the 1949 vice presidents of the guild whom
the Daily Worker of June 27, 1943, credits with being a "founder" of
the guild, is a faithful Communist Party liner. His many other
Communist-front connections include Civil Rights Congress, American
Committee for Protection of Foreign Born, Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee
Committee, Committee for a Democratic Far Eastern Policy, American Committee for Spanish Freedom, Emergency Peace Mobilization,
National Federation for Constitutional Liberties, National Council
of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions, National Negro Congress,
Southern Conference for Human Welfare. Popper recently represented the Chinese Communist government.
Thomas J. Emerson, a law professor at Yale University, was elected
president of the National Lawyers Guild at its national convention in
New York City in May 1950. Mr. Emerson has been associated with
the guild from its very begmning, and served on the guild's executive
board during its first year, 1937. The records of the Committee on
Un-American Activities show that Mr. Emerson has an unusual affinity
for Communist-front organizations and that in addition to the National
Lawyers Guild he has associated himself with such groups as Civil
Rights Congress, Jefferson School of Social Rcience, Southern Conference for Human Welfare, National Council of the Arts, Sciences,
and Professions. He has further associated himself with the Communist-blessed Progressive Citizens of America and with the Communist-dominated United Public Workers of America.
The present executive secretary of the National Lawyers Guild is
Robert J. Silberstein, who has held that same position for many year~.

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

17

Mr. Silberstein's connections with the guild date from its earliest days.
The files of the committee disclose that Mr. Silberstein is the signer
of a public statement defending the Communist Party and that he has
associated with such subversive organizations as the International
Workers Order, Committee for Citizenship Rights, Lawyers Committee on American Relations with Spain, and Progressive Committee
to Rebuild the American Labor Party.
Clifford .J. Durr, 1949 head of the guild, who has appeared before
the Committee on Un-American Activities representing clients who
declined to answer questions as to Communist affiliations on the
grounds of self-incrimination, in August of 1948 attended the World
Congress of Intellectuals for Peace behind the iron curtain, at Wroclaw, Poland. In May of 1948, Dull', in Ii speech before the Federation of American Scientists, charged that United States scientists are
forced to "work in an atmosphere of corrosive fear." This was prior
to the disclosure regarding the spying of the British atom spy, Klaus
Fuchs.
Durr sponsored a committee to defeat the Mundt-Ferguson Communist control bill. He charges that the "loyalty program is above
the Constitution."
Durr presently serves as a vice president of the guild.
The 1950 vice presidents of the National Lawyers Guild include
the following other individuals with significant records of associations
with Communist enterprises:
Osmond Fraenkel: Associated with Consumers National Federation,
American Labor Party, National Committee for the Defense of
Political Prisoners, American Student Union, Consumers Union,
American League Against War and Fascism, New York Tom Mooney
Committee, National Emergency Conference for Democrlitic Rights,
International Juridical Association, National Committee for People's
Rights, Medical Bureau and North American Committee To Aid
Spanish Democracy, Greater New York Emergency Conference on
Inalienable Rights, Film Audiences for Democracy, Films for Democracy, Coordinating Committee To Lift the Embargo, Citizens Committee To Free Earl Browder, School for Democracy.
Louis F. McOabe: Associated with Philadelphia School of Social
Science and Art, National Federation for Constitutional Liberties,
Civil Rights Congress, American League for Peace and Democracy,
Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, North American Committee
To Aid Spanish Democracy, National Council of the Arts, Sciences
and Professions, American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born,
International Labor Defense, National Emergency Conference for
Democratic Rights, International Juridical Association, American
Student Union.
Bartley O. Orum: Associated with California Labor School, National
Committee To Win the Peace, National Federation for Constitutional
Liberties, Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, Joint AntiFascist Refugee Committee, American-Russian Institute, American
Slav Congress, American Youth for Democracy, American Committee
for Spanish Freedom.
Richard Gladstein: Associated with the Civil Rights Congress. Mr.
Gladstein sent Labor Day greetings to the People's Daily World,
west coast organ of the Communist Party, in 1947, and sent May Day
greetings to the same subversive newspaper in the present year.
:Mr. Gladstein was one of the attorneys who were sentenced to jail

18

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

for contempt of court as a result of their abusive attitudes while
defending the 11 Communist leaders recently convicted in N ew York.
OFFICERS OF THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
(As of December 1949)
President

Executive board members-Continued

Clifford J. Durr, Washington, D. C. Detroit-Continued
Walter M. Nelson
Patrick S. Kertney
Executive secretary
Hon. Patrick H. O'Brien
Robert J. Silberstein, Washington, D. C.
Nedwin L. SmokIer
Maurice Sugar
Hon. Henry S. Sweeney
Treasurer
G. Leslie Field
Los Angeles-Hollywood:
Nathan B. Kogan, New York City
Robert W. Kenny
Clore Warne
Vice presidents
John T. McTernan
George Slaff
Bartley C. Crum, San Francisco
Prof. Thomas 1. Emerson, Yale Law Hope, Ark.: George Patrick Casey
Houston, Tex.: Herman Wright
School
Lima, Ohio: Elmer McClain
Osmond K. Fraenkel, New York City
New York City:
Mitchell Franklin, New Orleans
Benjamin Algase
Elmer Gertz Chicago
Leonard B. Boudin
Charles H. Houston, Washington, D. C.
Louis Boudin
[deceased]
Joseph H. Crown
O. John Rogge, New York City
Hon. Hubert T. Delaney
Hon. Ira W. Jayne, Detroit, presiding
Bernard D. Fischman
judge, Circuit Court, Wayne County,
Albert C. Gilbert
Mich
Carol King
Daniel G. Marshall, Los Angeles
Leo J. Linder
Louis F. McCabe, Philadelphia
Thurgood Marshall
Martin Popper, New York City
PaulO'Dwver
Milton Paulson
Executive board members
Marian Wynn Perry
Lee Pressman
Baltimore:
Paul L. Ross
1. Duke Avnet
Harry Sacher
Donald Murray
Hon. Nathan R. Sobel
Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Allan Heald
William L. Standard
Chicago:
Abraham Unger
Paul G. Annes
Benedict Wolf
Earl B. Dickerson
Irving H. Flamm
Arthur G. Silverman
Philadelphia: Saul C. Waldbaum
Solomon Jesmer
Pittsburgh: Hyman Schlesinger
Sidney A. Jones, Jr.
John Ligtenberg
St. Louis: Victor B. Harris
David B. Rothstein
San Francisco:
George L. Siegel
J. Bruce Fratis
George G. Olshausen
Euclid L. Tavlor
Seattle: John Caughlan
Richard F. Watt
Washington, D. C.:
Eugene Cotton
Nelson Willia
George M. Johnson
Harry L. Diehl
Donald M. Murtha
David Rein
Cleveland:
Hon. Lewis Drucker
Herbert S. Thatcher
Elsie Tarcai
Belford V. Lawson, Jr.
Herschel G. Holland
Boston: Arthur L. Brown
Charles M. Goodwin
Youngstown, Ohio: John F. Kicak
Allen Madorski
Miami: Harold Tannen
Denver: Sl).muel D. Menin
Detroit:
Student di vision:
Alan N. Brown
Martin Tucker, Cambridge
Alvin Davenport
Robert Silverstein, Chicago
James Montante
Samuel Rosenberg, New York City

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

19

OFFICERS OF THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
(As of May 1950)
President

Thomas 1. Emerson, Yale University

Executive board-Continued

Solomon Jesmer, Chicago
Sidney A. Jones, Jr., Chicago
Executive secretary
Robert W. Kenny, Los Angeles
John F. Kicak, Youngstown, Ohio
Robert J. Silberstein, Washington, D. C. Carol King, New York City
Belford V. Lawson, Washington, D. C.
Treasurer
John Lightenberg, Chicago
Leo J. Linder, New York City
Nathan B. Kogan, New York
Elmer McClain, Lima, Ohio
John T. McTernan, Los Angeles
vice presidents
Allan M·adorski, Cleveland
Samuel D. Menin, Detroit
Clifford J. Durr, Washington, D. C.
James Montante, Detroit
Osmond Fraenkel, New York City
Donald Murray, Baltimore
Bartley Crum, San Francisco
Donald M. Murtha, Washington, D. C.
Louis McCabe, Philadelphia
Walter M. Nelson, Detroit
Richard Gladstein, San Francisco
Patrick S. Nerthney, Detroit
Earl B. Dickerson, Chicago
Patrick H. O'Brien, Detroit
Victor B. Harris, St. Louis
Paul O'Dwyer, New York City
George Slaff, Los Angeles
Geo. H. Olshausen, San Francisco
Henry Weihofen, New Mexico
Milton Paulson, New York City
Martin Popper, New York City
Marion Wynn Perry, New York City
Hon. Ira W. Jayne, Detroit
Lee P.ressman, New York City
Elmer Gertz, Chicago
David Rein, Washington, D. C.
Mitchell FranklipJ New Orleans
Samuel Rosenberg, New York City
O. John Rogge, l\1ew York City
Paul L. Ross, New York City
David B. Rothstein, Chicago
Executive board
Harry Sacher, New York City
Hyman Schlesinger, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Benjamin Algase, New York City
George L. Siegel, Chicago
Paul G. Annes, Chicago
Arthur G. Silverman, New York City
1. Duke Avnet, Baltimore
Robert Silverstein, Madison, Wis.
Leonard B. Boudin, New York City
George Slaff, Los Angeles
Alan Brown, Detroit
Hon. Nathan R. Sobel, New York City
George Patrick Casey, Arkansas
William L. Standard, New York City
John Caughlin, Seattle
Nedwin L. SmokIer, Detroit
Eugene Cotton, Chicago
Maurice Sugar, Detroit
Joseph H. Crown, New York City
Hon. Henry S. Sweeney, Detroit
Elvin A. Davenport, Detroit
Hon. Hubert D. Delany, New York City Harold Tannen, Miami
Elsie Tarcai, Cleveland
Earl B. Dickerson, Chicago
Euclid L. Taylor, Chicago
Harry Diehl, Gibson City, Ill.
Herbert S. Thatcher, Washinf.!;ton, D. C.
hon. Lewis Druckner, Cleveland
Abraham Unger, New York City
G. Leslie Field, Detroit
Bernard D. Fischman, New York City Morris Wainger, New York City
Irving H. Flamm, Chicago
Saul C. Waldblum, Philadelphia
Clore Warne, Los Angeles
J. Bruce Fratis, San Francisco
Richard F. Watt, Chicago
Albert C. Gilbert, New York City
Nelson Willis, Chicago
Charles M. Goodwin, Cleveland
Benedict Wolf, New York City
Victor B. Harris, St. Louis
Herman Wright, Houston, Tex.
Allen Heald, Chicago
Charles H. Houston, Washington, D. C.
[deceased]

20

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

OFFICERS, WASHINGTON CHAPTER, NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
(as of July 1950)
President, Harry Lamberton
Vice president, Belford V. Lawson, Jr.
Executive secretary, David Rein
Recording secretary, Selma Salmons
Treasurer, Charlotte A. Hankin
Board of directors: Jack Blume
James A. Cobb
Arthur Christopher, Jr.!
Milton Freeman
Samuel Jaffe
Howard Jenkins
Samuel Levine
Harry N. Rosenfeld 2
Herbert H. Thatcher 3
Ruth Weyand
Donald M. Murtha·

ORGANIZATIONAL DATA

Headquarters of the National Lawyers Guild are located at 902
Twentieth Street NW., Washington, D. C.
The National Lawyers Guild claimed a membership of 3,891 individuals as of June 1, 1950. Its chapters number 14 and are located
in the following cities: Baltimore, Boston, Albany, Troy, Schenectady,
Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Washington, D. C., Hollywood, Los
Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. For the
purpose of comparison, the Journal of the American Bar Association
in 1948 estimated the total number of attorneys in the United States
at 180,000. To carry the comparison still further, the American Bar
Association reported its own membership to be 28,400 in 1937 and
42,000 in 1949, according to the World Almanac.
Since 1946, the National Lawyers Guild has maintained a student
division to permit law students to become members of the guild.
The 3,891 total guild membership figure as of June 1, 1950, includes
702 individuals who are listed as members of the guild's student
division. The guild lists the locations of its student divisions as
follows: University of Michigan, University of CaJifornia at San
Francisco, University of Southern California (Boalt Hall), University
of Chicago, Harvard University, New York University, Columbia
University, Brooklyn Law School, Yale University, University of
Washington at Seattle, Wayne University, Washington, D. C. (sic).
Dues paid by its members provides the National Lawyers Guild
with some of its funds. Another source is contributions from interested individuals and organizations.
The House Committee on Un-American Activities, in a report dated
June 7, 1946, referred to its investigation of organizations which
financed communistic and subversive causes in the United States.
The committee named the Sound View Foundation, Inc., of New
York as a typical example. The National Lawyers Guild received
I Dropped membership through nonpayment of dues, April Ig49, and refused nomination to board of
directors.
.
, Dropped membership through nonpayment of dues, April 1949, aud refused nomination to board of
directors.
3 Dropped membership through nonpayment of dues, April 1949, and has not attended a guild meetIng for over three years.
, Resigned.

THE NATIONAL LAWYE'RS GUILD

21

$700 from the now-defunct Sound View Foundation, according to the
report.
In 1949, the Communist-dominated International Fur and Leather
Workers Union contributed $3,000 to the National Lawyers Guild.
In 1947 and again in 1948, the Communist-dominated United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers Union contributed $750 to the
National Lawyers Guild.
Another contributor to the National Lawyers Guild was the Robert
Marshall Foundation of New York City, which in 1947 contributed
$2,000. This foundat.ion was described in the March 29, 1944, report
of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities as "one of the
principal sources for the money with which to finance the Communist
Party's fronts generally in recent years."
Frederick Vanderbilt Field, whose adherence to Communist causes
is well known, has also contributed money to the National Lawyers
Guild.
Over 40 employees of the Federal Government who are currently
carried on the rolls of the National Lawyers Guild as members were
contacted by the staff of the committee. The majority of those
contacted have, in their opinions, ceased their membership through
the nonpayment of dues, although only three had submitted formal
letters of resignation. However, the National Lawyers Guild still
considers these persons to be members. Two individuals carried as
members of the board of directors of the Washington chapter of the
National Lawyers Guild are still carried as such even though they
refused the nomination to the board of directors and had stopped
paying dues. One person carried as a member of the board had
neither paid dues since April of .1949 nor attended a meeting in over
3 years.
Many persons interviewed, und these interviews were limited to
present Government employees, stated that as a result of their memberships in the National Lawyers Guild they had been receiving
literature from Communist-front organizations.
CONCLUSION

The Committee on Un-American Activities recommends that the
National Lawyers Guild be placed on the Department of Justice
subversive list and that it be required to register as an agent of a
foreign principal.
It recommends further that members of the National Lawyers
Guild be barred from Federal employment and that the American
Bar Association consider the question of whether or not membership
in the National Lawyers Guild, a subversive organization, is compatible with admissibility to the American bar. It calls on decent
lawyers and those sincerely interested in the liberal principles of
American justice to warn the younger members of the bar of the real
natur~ of the guild, as an arm of the international Communist
conspIracy.

APPENDIX
COMPARISON OF GUILD PROGRAM WITH COMMUNIST PARTY LINE

Through resolutions of its conventions, declarations of its national
executive board, and statements of its officials, the National Lawyers
Guild has expressed its position with regard to many foreign and
domestic issues. Some high lights of these pronouncements are compared in the following pages with statements on the same issues as
found in the Daily Worker, Daily Peoples World, New Masses, The
Communist, and Political Affairs. The first four publications mentioned were identified as Communist in the Special Committee on
Un-American Activities, United States House of Representatives,
report dated March 29, 1944, while the last was similarly described
in the same committee's Report No. 1920 dated May 11, 1948, pages
5 and 6.
The only striking example of conflict with the Communist Party
line occurred when the guild's executive board denounced the Russian
invasion of Finland in December1939, when it still included a sizable
number of non-Communists who have since resigned. This resolution
was, however, not widely publicized.
A.

DOMESTIC ISSUES

1. ALIENS

(EXPLANATORY NOTE.-Many members of the Communist Party, U. S. A.,
are aliens subject to deportation proceedings. In some cases Russia has refused
to accept Communist deportees from the United States. The Hobbs bill (H. R.
10) therefore provided for the internment of such aliens, just as was done with
Nazi deportees during World War II.)
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.
Defeat the Bill for Concentration
Camps * * * Weare referring to
the fact that the "Concentration Camp"
Bill introduced by Congressman Hobbs,
of Alabama, has just been reported out of
Committee.
* * * The reactionaries behind it
hope to sneak it through before the
people have a chance to act. The Bill
provides that all foreign-born noncitizetls shall be imprisoned for life in
concentration camps if they have no
passports to the countries of their birth.
Such persons will be seized without
trial, and without any possibility of
appeal to higher courts.
* * * We urge that you wire your
Congressman now, and urge him to vote
"No" to the Hobbs Bill (Daily Worker,
April 27, 1939, p. 1).

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

* * *

The National Lawyers
Guild in convention assembled opposes
passage of the Hobbs Concentration
Camp Bill, or any similar legislation
which would establish concentration
camps in America (Lawyers Guild Review, vol. 1, No.4, June 1941, p. 64).

23
H. Rellt. 3123, 81-2--4

24

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

(EXPLANATORY NOTE.-The Smith bill was adopted just prior to World War
II as a necessary defense precaution and provided for the registration and fingerprinting of aliens.)
COMMUNIST PARTY, U.

8.

A.

The Smith Bill-one of the most repressive of a long list of "antialien"
measures now hanging fire in Congress-may come up any day. * * *
This is an omnibus bill, combining all
the vicious features of a number of
measures, and a few of its own. It requires registration and fingerprinting of
all aliens, a domestio passport system
which, unquestionably would involve
the whole population. At the same
time, it makes it more difficult for the
foreign-born to beoome oitizens * * *
(Daily Worker, May 29, 1939, p. 6).
* * * The tory members of the
Senate Committee on Immigration approved a bill that violates the very
fundamentals of the Declaration of Independence and of Amerioan demooraoy.
* * * In providing for the registration of all aliens, the measure strikes
a direot blow at the Bill of Rights. Let
no one try pretend that suoh a measure
is aimed at aliens alone. Its real purpose is to intimidate aliens and foreignborn oitizens in order to weaken the
unions and other demooratio organizations to whioh they belong. This is not
an "antialien" bill. It is a sedition
bill to undermine democraoy. The
measure is an opening wedge against
the rights and liberties of all Amerioans
(Sunday Worker, July 2, 1939, p. 6).
Fifth column hysteria swept both
houses of Congress today and inoluded
in its destructive sweep the civil liberties
of the Amerioan people and the rights
of organized labor as well as the welfare
of the foreign born.
Direot oonsequenoes of the President's
national defense program inoluded:
(1) Passage of the LaFollette oppressive Labor Praotioes Aot. * * *
(2) Unanimous approval by the Senate Judioiary Committee of the Smith
Omnibus Anti-Alien Bill. * * *
(3) Approval by the House of the
President's reorganization plan transferring the Bureau of Immigration from
the Department of Labor to the Department of Justioe, thus subjeoting the
foreign born to persecution by J. Edgar
Hoover's FBI * * * (Daily Worker,
May 28, 1940, p. 1).

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
At its 1940 oonvention the Guild opposed all proposals to fingerprint or
require identifioation oards of aliens
inasmuoh as suoh proposals were deemed
disoriminatory and neoessarily "lead to
the registration and fingerprinting of
the entire population." (National Lawyers Guild Quarterly, vol. 3, No.2, p.
119, July 1940.)

Guild opposed H. R. 5138, the Alien
Registration Act, pointing out that the
aot not only provided for the registra.tion of aliens but oontained a Federal
Sedition law and a military disaffeotion
law whioh it oriticized as a violation of
the First Amendment to the Federal
Constitution (Lawyers Guild Review,
October 1940, p. 591).

The National Lawyers Guild * * *
disapproves all proposals, whether federal, state, or looal, to register fingerprint or require identifioation oards of
all aliens, as suoh proposals are discriminating and must of neoessity also
lead to the registration and fingerprinting of the entire population; * * *
The impending transfer of the Immigration and Naturalization Servioe from
the Labor Department to the Department of Justioe; * * * (National
Lawyers Guild Quarterly, vol. 3, No.2,
July 1940, p. 119).
.

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

25

2. BRIDGES CASE
(EXPLANATORY NOTE.-Harry Bridges, an alien member of the Communist
Party, USA, has been the subject of deportation proceedings for a number of
years. He has recently been convicted of perjury for denying his party membership in such proceedings.)
COMMUNI8T PARTY. U. 8. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

Bridges, as it is well known by informed people, is not a Communist nor
is it against the law to be a Communist.
But if the shipowners can get away with
the kind of frame-up they are perpetrating against Bridges, what tradeunion or liberal leader is safe? For it
is progressive unionism and the New
Deal which the shipowners are trying
to destroy in this frame-up farce against
Bridges (Daily Worker, July 28, 1939,
p.6).

H. R. 9766 ordering the deportation
of Harry Bridges after he has been
found not guilty of any conduct which
would justify his deportation under
laws applicable to all aliens would be a
dangerous precedent for an objectionable practice * * * The National
Lawyers Guild disapproves H. R. 9766
as a contravention of the historical
American opposition to anything in the
nature of a Bill of Attainder expressly
prohibited by the Federal Constitution
(National Lawyers Guild ()uarterly, voL
3, No.2, July 1949, p. 119).
By letter dated June 28, 1940. to the
Senate Committee on Immigration and
Naturalization the Guild opposed H. R.
9766, "a bilI directing the Attorney
General to deport Harry Renton Bridges
forthwith to Australia." Described it
as an "un-American proposal."
Guild cited the action against Bridges
as an attempt by "opponents of the
labor movement * * * to thwart
the development thereof by prosecuting
its leaders." (Washington Evening Star,
February 25, 1941).

The victory which has been won by
the unions and the people in the Harry
Bridges case * * * is a bitter disappointment to the reactionaries (Daily
Worker, January 2, 1940, p. 6).
And so, after years of persecution
and a man hunt of such proportions as
this country has never witnessed, with
months of coaching and preparation by
the FBI, the Department of Justice of
this great Nation could produce nothing
more against Harry Bridges than the,
at best, questionable words of two
witnesses * * * (New Masses, June
9, 1942, p. 12).

According to the New York Times,
March 19. 1945. the Guild sent a legal
memorandum and petition to the President urging cancellation of deportation
proceedings against Bridges. Stated:
"If Harry Bridges, a well-loved leader
of a strong American trade-union were
permitted to suffer the punishment of
exile from a land in which he had lived
for almost 25 years * * * would
not fair-minded men everywhere tend
to suspect the good faith of our commitments and the sincerity of our program
for a lasting peace"? (New York Times,
March 19, 1945).

26

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

3.

COMMITTEES INVESTIGATING COMMUNISM

HOUSE COMMI=EE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

It is with real Hitler brazenness that
Dies asks Congress for more funds-to
be exact, for $150,00D--in order that his
gang can help the Nazi bunds and the
Wall Street Tories tear down American
democracy. Every American should
answer this insolence with an increasing
stream of protests to his Congressman
urging an end to the Dies outfit. Let
Congress establish a committee to
ferret out the un-American forces which
Dies witch-hunters are hiding. (Editorial, Daily 'Worker, January 23, 1939,
p. 6).
Attention, All Readers!

In January 1939, the New York City
Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild
sent a resolution to the New York State
Assembly and the U. S. House of Representatives stating:
"1. That we urge the resolution to
continue the Dies Committee be disapproved and that no further funds be
appropriated to it, and
"2. That we urge Congress to request
the Department of Justice to carryon an
investigation of un-American and subversive activities * * *
"3. That we urge the legislature of
the State of New York to memorialize
the Congress of the United States to
discharge the Dies Committee for the
reasons hereinabove set forth" (Daily
Worker, January 23, 1939, pp. 1 and 4).
In November 1939, the San Franeisco
Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild
released a pamphlet entitled "In the
Court of Public Opinion, Indictment,
People of the United States of America
vs. the Dies Committee." This pamphlet contained the statement: "Propaganda groups such as the Dies Committee must be condemned by the American people, if American democracy
and the Bill of Rights are to be maintained" (Daily Worker, November 15,
1939, p. 1).
Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved: That
the House of Representatives be urged
to deny the request of Chairman Dies
for an additional one hundred thousand
dollars as a supplemental approp!"iation
for the Dies Committee to investigate
un-American activities.
That the House of Representatives be
urged to discontinue and disband the
Dies Committee except for the submission of a report on its activities and
that the Dies Committee be directed
forthwith to turn over to the Department of Justice or other appropriate
governmental agencies any information
which might be of aid to such governmental agencies in the performance of
their duties (Fourth Annual Convention,
National Lawyers GUild, May 29-June
2, 1940, National Lawyers Guild ()uarterly, vol. 3, No.2, July 1940, p. 121).
* * * the National Lawyers
Guild in convention assembled urges
* * * the abolition of the Dies
Committee * . . * (Resolution,
Fifth National Convention, National
Lawyers
Guild,
May-June 1941,
Lawyers Guild Review, vol. I No.4,
June 1941, p. 67).
By letter of February 7, 1942, the
New York City Chapter of the Guild

Write your Congress today on dissolving the Dies Committee * * *
(National Issues, January 1939, p. 18,
Published monthly by National Committee, Communist Party).
The November 18, 1939, issue of the
Daily Worker, page 6, editorialized
favorably on the Guild pamphlet and
concluded:
"Not another cent for Dies: This
should be the thunderous demand of the
American people upon the January
Congress."
Abolish the Un-American Dies and
Smith Committees (Resolution Adopted
by the National Committee of the Communist Party, U. S. A., February 1940,
The Communist, March 1940, page 216).

An end must be put to such instruments of fascism as the Dies Committee
. . * . . (Manifesto of the National
Committee, Communist Party, USA,
adopted at its Plenary Meeting, June
28-29, 1941, The Communillt, August
1941, p. 681).
But why does the Congress of the
United States continue to vote confidence in Mr. Dies, and provide him

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

27

OOMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

with unlimited public funds with which
to carryon his work which "helps
Hitler's cause, not ours"? (Victory and
After, Earl Browder, p. 69, International
Publishers, Inc., 1942).

sent to each member of the U. S.
House of Representatives a report of
the record of the Dies Committee in
the four years of its life. The letter
concluded:
"Wherefore, we respectfully submit
that the resolution to continue the Dies
Committee and to appropriate additional funds thereto be disapproved"
(Daily Worker, February 10, 1942, p. 4).
By letter of February 15, 1942, over
the signature of Martin Popper, executive secretary, the Guild criticized
Representative Dies to President Roosevelt and said:
"We pledg2 to continue our efforts to
convince Congress that the Dies Committee must be discontinued since it
represents an impediment and obstacle
to American victory" (Daily Worker,
February 16, 1942, p. 4).
In a letter to U. S. Representative
Frank Hook, Michigan, the Detroit
Chapter of the Guild urged him to
vote down any further appropriation
for the Dies Committee, declaring it
stands exposed "as a home-made pattern of Hitler's international antiComintern technique" (Daily Worker,
February 28, 1942, p. 3).
At every stage of its career, and especially now in wartime, the Dies Committee has been a hindrance to the
honest aspirations of the American
people. In the past, he has repeatedly
come before Congress and promised to
redeem his errors. He has never once
fulfilled those promises. There is no
reason for risking the public money by
trusting a broken promise again repeated (The Dies Committee, Lawyers
Guild Review, vol. III, No.1, JanuaryFebruary 1943, p. 28).
The Guild was listed as one of twenty
groups which had joined together and
pledged a "fight to the finish campaign
to abolish the Un-American House Committee" (Daily Worker, October 24,
1945).
The Guild was one of several organizations announcing a nation-wide campaign to abolish the Rankin Un-American Activities Committee. The groups'
first objective was the completion of
signature drives for a petition to abolish
the Committee (Daily Worker, December 9, 1945).
This Committee, for nine long years
has distinguished itself by its utter disregard of the constitutional rights of
minorities with whose ideas it disagrees.
* * * The Guild urges the House of
Representatives to abolish the House
Committee forthwith (Guild Resolution,
February 23, 1948, Lawyers Guild Review, vol. VIII, No.1, January-February 1948, p. 319).

Eventual readers of the history of
this war will be amazed at the extent
and with what insolence this protection
of the enemies within our gates had been
carried on by members of Congress.
The worst thing done in this respect by
Congress (so far at least) has been the
recommissioning of the Dies Committee
and voting it $75,000 with which to
continue its subversive work (The
Reactionary Offensive and the War,
William Z. Foster, The Communist,
April 1943, p. 306).
The American people must therefore
conclude that while the United States
can easily dispense with the House
Committee on Un-American Activities,
it cannot afford to do without the American Communist Party (America
Needs the Communist Party, Speech
of Eugene Dennis at Madison Square
Garden, New York, September 18, 1945,
Political Affairs, October 1945, p. 875).

Civil Rights:
End the witch hunts, loyalty orders and phony spy scares.
Abolish the Un-Ameriean Committee
(Political Affairs, September 1948, p.
941 Jarticle: "1948 Election Platform of
the Communist Party").

* * *

28

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
COMMUNIST PARTY, U.

B.

A.

The drive against witch hunting must
take the form of outright abolition of
the Un-American Activities Committee.
* * * (Popular Mandate vs. Monopoly Policy in the New Congress, Max
Gordon, Political Affairs, January 1949,
p.82).

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
On December 13, 1948, the Guild sent
a statement to all House Members demanding abolition of the House Committee on Un-American Activit,ies. The
statement alleged that the "existence
and activities of such a committee are
inherentlv inimical to the most fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution" (Daily Worker, December 13,
1948, p. 2, Washington Star, December
13, 194R).
The House Committee on Un-American Activities * * * should be
abolished (Resolution of the National
Guild Convention, February 23, 1949,
Lawyers Guild Review, vol. IX, No.1,
Winter 1949, p. 51).

RAPP-COUDERT COMMITTEE
(EXPLANATORY NOTE.-The Rapp-Coudert Committee was active in 1940 in
investigating Communist activity in the public school system of New York City.)
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. B. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

Contempt proceedings by the RappCoudert Committee against five members of the Brooklyn ColleRe faculty
are a striking exposure of the fascist
character of the committee.
The charge is that the teachers
refused to testify before the Committee.
But actually, they justifiably refused
to attend a secret one-man hearing in
which they would be denied benefit of
counsel * * * (Daily Worker, December 23, 1940, p. 6, editorial).
The Rapp-Coudprt Committee, which
is taking the lead in the fight to destroy
public education in New York State, is
this week conducting "little Dies" hearings in New York City against the
Teachers Union and its membership.
The Rapp-Coudert Committee and
the State Legislature have been carrying the banners of the Middle Ages
particularly high during the past few
months. The Committee was created
to "investigate, study and review State
aid, administration, conduct, methods,
subject matter and subversive activities
in the public schools * * * and
every other matter deemed relevant."
What the Committee deemed relevant
was to instigate an attack of unprecedented proportions against progressive
education and against the Teachers
Union, organization of progressiveminded men and women in the New
York's school system (Sunday Worker,
December I, 1940, p. 5]..,artic1e by Beth
McHenry entitled "voudert Waves
Middle Age Banner in School Attack").

* * * The National Lawyers
Guild in convention assembled condemns all attacks on academic freedom
and particularly condemns the actions
of the Rapp-Coudert Committee, the
New York Board of "Education, the
Board of Higher Education, the refusal
of the College of the City of New York
to review the appointment of Dr. Max
Yergan and the termination by Swarthmore College of the appointment of
Josephine Truslow Adams (Lawyers
Guild He'Jiew, vol. 1, No.1, No.4,
June 1941, p. 63).
Lawyers Guild Raps Coudert WitchHunt.
Charges Body Failed to Uncover
Activity of pro-Fascists.
Although the Rapp-Coudert Committee has spent more than a quarter
of a million dollars in puhlic funds, it
has failed to unearth a single example
of fascist or pro-Nazi activity in our
public school system, the New York
Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild
charged yesterday.
The Lawyers Guild called upon the
state legislature to at least give opponents of the Rapp-Coudert Committee
an opportunity to be heard before acting
upon its extension.
The statement pointed out that the
Rapp-Coudert Committee was created
to investigate the cost of education in
the State and that up to now nothing
has been heard of this phase of the
inquiry (Daily Worker, March 25, 1942,
p.5).

29

THE NATIONAL LAWYE'RS GUILD

TENNEY COMMITTEE
(EXPLANATORY NOTE.-The Tenney Committee was the California Joint
Fact Finding Committee on Un-American Activities.)
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.
State Senator Jack B. Tenney today
initiated his version of a book-burning
crusade against The Daily People's
World.
Enraged at the paper's forthright
opposition to his activities, the senator
concluded his Un-American committee
hearings late yesterday by receiving
rubberstamp approval of a resolution
urging a boycott of the Daily People's
World. (Daily People's World. February 21, 1948, p. 1).

NATIONAL

LAWYERS

GUILD

The California Tenney Committee
on Un-American Activities is the
counterpart on a state scale of the
Committee on Un-American Activities of
the House of Representatives * * *
the National Lawyers Guild reiterates
its position that the rights of an individual against interference or inquiry
into his political, social and economic
views .and beliefs are inviolate and may
not be the subject of inquisition by
any agency of government * * *
(National Lawyers Guild Convention
Resolution, February 1948. Lawyers
Guild Review, January-February 1948,
pp. 329, 330).

4. TRIAL OF COMMUNIST LEADERS
The destruction of the rights of the
Communist is the classical first step
down the road to fascism. (1948
Election Platform of the Communist
Party, Political Affairs, September
1948, p. 940).

End the witch hunts, loyalty orders
and phony spy scares.
Abolish the Un-American Committee.
Withdraw the indictments against the
twelve Communist leaders and the contempt citations against the anti-fascist
victims of Congressional inquisitions
(1948 Election Platform of the Communist Party, Political Affairs, September 1948, p. 941).

As construed and applied to these
indictments, therefore, the Smith Act
infringes the basic rights of the defendants to speech, press and assembly,
destroys their right to organize and
assemble with others as a political party,
suppresses their right to expound, and
advocate a social science-and is
therefore unconstitutional. * * *

Martin Popper, an executive of the
National Lawyers Guild, addressed the
World Congress of International Democratic Lawyers at Prague, September 7,
1948, and proposed that it send a
European lawyer to observe the trial
of the 12 American Communist leaders.
Popper warned that "the indictment of
Communist leaders presages the beginning of the end of the Constitutional
form of government in America."
Daily Worker, September 9, 1948, p. 2).
An amicus curiae brief, filed by the
National Lawyers Guild, October 7,
1948, before U. S. District Judge
Murray Hulbert regarding the indictment of the twelve leaders of the Communist Party, contained the following
statements:
"These indictments are part of the
ominous pattern that has come to
threaten the entire Bill of Rights.
"They are a direct outcome of the
anti-Communist hysteria, spy hunts,
etc., that daily fill the press and every
other channel of public information. * * *
"We respectfully urge this court to
assert the judicial integrity of our
Constitutional system by dismissing
these indictments as the clearest violation of the First Amendment." (Daily
Worker, October 8, 1948, p. 1).

30

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

The indictments should be dismissed
(From the Briefs on the Unconstitutionality of the Smith Act, Political
Affairs, November 1948, pp. 10261032).
It is thus made abundantly clear
that a government is attempting by the
use of the law and courts to eliminate
political opposition. This strikes at the
vitals of our whole democratic process
(Ibid., p. 1015).

What is needed here in an all-out
mass campaign that will * * * secure the dismissal of the Grand Jury
indictments against our Party, repeal
the "Loyalty order" and the Smith
Act * * * (The Fascist Danger
and How To Combat It-Eugene Dennis, Political Affairs, September, 1948,
pp. 795, 796).
Our attack is upon the grand jury,
the petit jury panels, all panels, all of
the lists from which both grand and
petit juries are drawn, and indeed, the
entire system of jury selection. here
(The Federal Jury is stacked Against
You, Marion Bachrach, Communist
Party Defense Committee, New York,
January 1949).

Immediately after the infamous verdict was rendered the judge "turned to
some unfinished business" and, in a
manner bristling with hate and sadistic
satisfaction, found all the defense lawyers guilty of criminal contempt and
sentenced them to severe prison sen-

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

The persecution of the Communist
Party and its members has for some time
now been an avowed governmental
objective. A campaign of calumny and
slander emanating from governmental
sources has accompanied every legal
device used by officialdom to limit the
activities and silence the voice of this
Party and its members * * * We
witness every day * * * the label of
"Communist" and "subversive" placed
upon persons whose only crime appears
to be hostility towards present day
governmental policy, domestic or foreign.
There can be no talk of freedom if the
ideas of the Communist Party are
suppressed. * * * We call for a repeal of the Smith Act and the end of all
prosecutions thereunder (Resolutions
of February 1949, National Convention,
National Lawyers Guild, Lawyers Guild
Review, vol. IX, No.1, Winter 1949,
p.52).

* * * The duty of a Court is to
see that juries are fair and impartial,
and fairly represent a cross section of
the community; and to halt a prosecution where such fair and impartial jury
does not exist. It is time for Courts,
and legislatures to overhaul the entire
method of selecting juries to the end
that justice shall be fairly adminisistered (Ibid., p. 53).
On March 2, 1949, the New York
Chapter of the Guild filed an amicus
curiae brief in the case of the Communist Party leaders supporting a defense motion to quash the indictment
on the ground that the jury lists,
which were the source of the Grand
and Petit Jury, were illegally selected
and constituted (Guild Lawyer, Spring
1949, pp. 12 and 13).
A committee of prominent attorneys
will shortly begin a study to determine
whether the freedom of Counsel effectively to represent the Foley Square
defendants has been preserved, it was
announced yesterday bv the New
York City chapter of the National

THE NATIONAL LAWYE'RS GUILD
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

31

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

tences. This unprecedented procedure Lawyers Guild (Daily Worker, Sepin an American court is not only an tember 12, 1949, p. 3).
attack upon the rights and duty of the
legal profession faithfully to defend
their clients, but it deprives the defendants, who were rushed to jail without
bail, of the indispensable services of the
lawversmost familiar with the case to
carry forward their appeals (Elizabeth
Gurley Flynn in Introduction to In
Defense of Your Freedom, by Eugene
Dennis, New Century Publishers, New
York, October 1949).

5.

FEDERAL BUREAU OF IN'VESTIGA'fION

Investigate the Federal Bureau of Investigation because of "vicious assaults
upon civil liberties" Editorial, Daily
Worker, March 13, 1940, p. 6).
An article in the Daily Worker indicated that the FBI had gone beyond the
scope of its authority in conducting
general intelligence investigations. Reference was made to the increase in the
FBI's appropriation over a period of
years, and it was alleged that because
of its Director's "absorbing interest in
investigating alleged subversive activities" the FBI was falling behind in its
regular job of dealing with other types
of specific Federal violations (Daily
Worker, March 25, 1940).
The Nazi Gestapo is Hoover's Model
of Conduct for FBI (Daily Worker,
December 19, 1940, p. 5, columns 5, 6,
and 7).
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover was referred
to as "Chief of the national thought
police * * * " (Editorial, Political
Affairs, January 1948, p. 10).
It seems that the FBI * * * is
worried that the American people may
get wise to its real function- which is
thought control on the Gestapo and
Japanese police model (Editorial, The
Worker, June 6, 1948,p. 6).
The FBI and the Department of Justice have developed into a secret political
police which exists outside the law and
beyond the U. S. Constitution. * * *
An aroused nation must stop the FBI
effort to replace the American Constitution by the reign of the political spy
(Editorial, Daily Worker, June 13, 1949,
p.7).
Continuation of * * * protests can
turn the rumors about J. Edgar Hoover's
resignation into actual and heartening
fact (Editorial, Daily People's World,
June 16, 1949, p. 6).
The FBI's "undercover network" is a
menace to the internal security of the
nation * * * The American people

* *

*
the National Lawyers Guild'
in convention assembled opposes the
Gestapo activities of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, calls for the removal of
its Director, and urged Congress to reduce its appropriations so as to restrict
its jurisdiction to the field of federal
crime and to deprive it of authority to
act in matters which affect labor or
civil rights (National Lawyers Guild
Convention Resolution,
May-June
1941; Lawyers Guild Review, vol. 1, No.
4, June 1941, p. 66).

* * * the FBI has taken upon
itself the role of a political police on the
Continental model * * * The Guild
believes it is not the province or function
of the FBI or other police agencies to
maintain dossiers of individuals' lawful
political activities. The Guild requests
the Congress to conduct an investigation
into the activities of the FBI * * *
(National Lawyers Guild Convention
Resolution, February 1948; Lawyers
Guild Review, February 1948, p. 320).
The American people are entitled to
full information on the extent to which
the FBI has developed into a dangerous
secret police. * * * The National
Lawyers Guild recommends "a comprehensive investigation into the operations
and methods of the FBI" (National Lawyers Guild release, Daily Worker, June
20, 1949, p. 4, c3).

32

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
COMMUNIST PARTY, U.

S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

must rid the nation of this "undercover
network," which serves not tha nation
but a class, the minority of the financialindustrial cliques. The Bill of Rights
and the FBI's "undercover network"
are incompatible. One or the other
must go. We have no doubt which the
people will choose (Editorial, Daily
Worker, June 21, 1949, p. 8).
Surely the American people must see
the ~FBI with new eyes today. The
time has come to investigate its methods, its scandal-mongering lists, its
blackmailing data, its misuse of public
funds, its usurpation of power, its tentacles gripping all parts of our country
and its people (Daily Worker, p. 10,
June 29, 1949, written by Elizabeth
Gurley Flynn).
6. HOLLYWOOD TEN
(EXPLANATORY NOTE.-In 1947 the Committee on Un-American Activities
held a hearing in which ten Hollywood writers refused to answer questions regarding their Communist affiliations. They held that the Committee had no such
authority. The authority of the Committee on this matter has since been upheld
by the U. S. Supreme Court.)
CO-'1MUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

No Hollywood grade B stinkcroo
ever was as hammy in acting, as corny
in plot, or as phony in general as the
probe now being staged by the headline
hunters of the House Un-American
Committee.
* * * The men running this show
are not the little puppets of the UnAmerican Committee. These ambitious
little ward-heeler;; ale merelv the dollara-day extras in the business. It is Big
Business-the K ational Association of
Manufacturers and the Wall Street
labor-hating industrialists - which is
writing the script and giving the commands.
* * * Appeasement by this or
that Hollywood producer and actor
will not satisfv these un-Amcrican
totalitarians. Only American courage
and bold defiance of their book-burning
witch-hunt benefit any Am'lrican \I'OJ·thy
of thc name * * * (Editorial, Daily
Worker, October 22,1947, p. 9).

The New York ,fou'rnal American
of October 17, 1947, stated that 18
screen writers, producers, and actors
had released an open letter sponsored
by the Nat.jonal Lawyers Guild on the
issue of "Freedom of the Screen from
Political Intimidation and Censorship."
The Washington Post of October 19,
1947, stated that the Guild was to
sponsor a meeting October 20, 1947, at.
the National Press Building, Washington, D. C., to afford the Hollywood
personalities summoned by the House
Committee on Un-An\erican Activities
an opportunity to state their case.

7. LOYALTY PROGRAM (UNDER EXECUTIVE ORDER 9835.)
The implications of President TruOn June 7, 1947, in testimony before
man's executive order for "loyalty" a U. S. House of Representatives Comtests among federal employees reach far mittee concerning proposed loyalty
beyond the 2,200,000 federal workers legislation a Guild official objected to
and their families. The order flashes the legislation as well as to Executive
the signal for inquisitions and intimida- Order 9835 on the grounds that the
tion of all who disagrce with the govern- FBI would be the investigator, the
ment's forei).l;n and domestic policy.
judge, and the jury, He stated further,
* * * Executive decrees bypassing "When it is considered that both the
legally elected bodies were the path House Committee on Un-American
taken in many European nations to Activities and the FBI are sources of
install police states and fascist rule. To information specifically included in the

THE NATIONAL LAWYEHS GUILD
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

bow before these steps would be the
height of disloyalty to every principle
upon which our nation was founded.
Not only the Communists, but all
labor, the Negro people, professionals,
small business men, farmers and all who
value their right to oppose Wall Street
dictation of our foreign and domestic
policy-all should call for the repeal of
President Truman's executive order.
The President and Congressmen should
hear from the people back home in
letters, telegrams and resolutions (Editorial, Daily Worker, March 25, 1947,
p.3).
Nearly two milUon Americans are
going to have their heads examined.
Not that they are crazy or anything like
that. They are the 1,900,000 Government employees who will all face a
"loyalty purge" for which Congress has
voted.
There is no greater patriotic duty
today than for progressive Americans
to stand up to the witch-hunters and to
defy them to forbid the "dangerous
thoughts" of the American democracy
(Editorial, Daily Worker, July 29,
.
1947, p. 7).
Two items in yesterday's news bring
home to us the fact that the police state
is rapidly taking shape in our land.
The process of checking the "loyalty"
of the 2,000,000 government workers
was initiated, a check ordered by President Truman and endorsed bv the
GOP-dominated Congress with an appropriation of $11,000,000.
Loyalty to what? One tip-off is the
fact that the "loyalty check" questionnaire goes back to Organizational ties of
10 years ago. It was then that millions
of Americans, including many government workers, were actively aiding the
people of Spain in their heroic battle to
prevent Hitler and Mussolini from taking over their land as a fascist satellite.
Such support of democracy is "disloyal" in Washington today, as is allegiance to the ideals of peace and the
destruction of world fascism advanced
by FDR * * * (Editorial, Daily
Worker, August 19, 1947, p. 7).
* * * End the witch hunts, loyalty orders. and phony spy scares.
Abolish the Un-American Committee.
Withdraw the indictments against the
twelve Communist leaders and the contempt citations against the anti-fnscist
victims of congressional inquisitions
* * * (Political Affairs, September
1948, p. 941, Article: "1948 Election
Platform of the Communist Party").

33

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

Bill * * * the dangers of the Bill
are emphasized." He submitted to the
Committee a copy of a pamphlet entitled
"The Constitutional Right to Advocate
Political,
Social,
and
Economic
Change-An Essential of American
Democracy," and subtitled, "An Analysis of Proposed Federal Legislation and
Executive Order 9835."
Pamphlet,
prepared by the Guild, stated:
"The publication by the Attorney
General, pursuant to the 'Loyalty
Order,' of a list of organizations which
he chluacterizes as disloyal, is a direct
attack on the rights of freedom of association and expression protected by the
First Amendment. There is no ascertainable source of power for this action.
It is clear that constitutionally no sanctions may be imposed upon political
beliefs. * * *"

The Guild urges that the President
rescind Executive Order 9835 (Lawyers
Guild Rel'iew, vol. VIII, No.1, J:muaryFebruary 1948, p. 319).
More than a year has elapsed since
the promUlgation of the Loyalty Order
by the Executive arm of the Government. * * * Already, political parties, civic organizations, fraternal organizations, organizations of the most
diverse character, have been stigmatized as disloyal and subversive. Tax
exemptions have been canceled. Licenses to collect funds for relief have
been denied.
Each day men and
women, good public servants, find
themselves facing an inquisition into
their lives, both past and present, by
loyalty boards, F. B. 1. agents, supervisors and a host of other petty officials. * * *
*
men's ideas, opinions and
beliefs are beyond the pale of government interdiction. ... * * We urge the
revocation of the President's loyalty
and all similar test oaths (Lawyers Guild
Review, vol. IX, No.1, Winter 1949,
pp. 51, 52).

* *

34

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

8. PEEKSKiLL INCIDENT
(EXPLANATORY NOTE.-A New York State Grand Jury has found t.hat cert.ain
incidents which occurred in Peel,skill, New York, on August 27 and September 4,
1949, indicated that they were "used by the Communist Party as proving ground
to test its machinery for mobilizing its forces, manipulating public opinion, and,
more important, for rehearsing its strong-arm forces.")
COMMUNIST PARTY, U.

S. A.

The would-be lynching of Paul
Robeson by the Peekskill, N. Y., mob
can mean to America what the burning
of the books in Berlin, 1933, meant to
Germany and the world.
Let no American delude himself into
thinking that this was a local affair
with local Rignificance only.
This would-be lynching, this burning
of books and music to the accompaniment of savage yells against Jews and
N--rs impose police state terrorism
in the U. S. A. against the entire Negro
people and the nation as a whole.
* * * (Daily Worker, August 29,
1949, p. 7).
* * * Peekskill demonstrated to
progressive forces throughout the nation
that Fascist forces can be successfully
challenged by the people once the
people are sufficiently aroused to the
Fascist peril. * * * (Daily Worker,
September 7, 1949, p. 2).
9. PROSECUTION

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

Lawyers Guild asks McGrath act on
Peekskill.
The National Lawyers Guild yesterday called on Attorney General McGrath to investigate the Peekskill
attack of August 27 and "to take
vigorous action against those responsible" for any violation of federal law.
"So wideRpread were the rumors and
so well-grounded the apprehension that
a riot would take place, that we cannot
believe the authorities were not fully
aware of the situation," says the Guild
letter to McGrath (Daily Worker,
September 5, 1949, p. 9).

OF

GERHART EISLER

(EXPLANATORY N oTE.-Gerhart Eisler, an agen't of the Communist International,
was exposed as such by witnesses before the Committee on Un-American Activities
and later the subject of proceedings by the Department of Justice on charges of
passport violation.)
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

The National Lawyers Guild, among
The treatment handed out to Gerhart
Eisler, noted German Communist and others, filed a statflment with the
antifascist, by the U. S. Department of United States Supreme Court in behalf
Justice is an international disgrace. of Gerhart Eisler urging reversal of his
conviction for Contempt of Congress
(Daill/ Worker, March 28, 1949, p. 3

* * *

the sole "crime" which the
authorities could frame him for is a
measly alleged technical violation on a
passport application to quit the country,
and the "crime" of contempt of the
House Un-American Committee - a
contempt which every decent American
will heartily share * '" *. (Editorial, Daily Worker, May 16, 1949, p. 7).
Eisler, who fled from the United
States in May 1949, was during that
same month "unanimously elected to
the government of East Germany"
(Soviet Sector) (Daily Worker, May 31,
1949, p. 2).

c.2-3).

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

35

10. NON-COMMUNIST AFFIDAVIT IN THE TAFT-HARTLEY ACT
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

* * * it must be made clear that
the anti-Communist clause in the TaftHartley Act is clearly intended to be
used against every trade-union leader
who is progressive and militant, whether
he be a Communist or not. It is clearly
unconstitutional and must also be challenged on that basis, although the main
fight must be made by the wokers and
the union (Portion of a report delivered
by John Williamson at the June 27-30,
1947, meeting of the National Committee CP USA. Political Affairs,
August 1947, p. 709).

We call for the immediate repeal of
the Taft-Hartley Law with its infamous
test oath (National Lawyers Guild Convention Resolution, February 1949;
Lawyers Guild Review, vol. IX, No.1,
Winter 1949, p. 52).

11. UNIVERSAL MILITARY TRAINING
The Communist Party is opposed to
both universal military training and the
peacetime
draft. These
proposals
... * * are not required to defend
our nation from any foreign threat
... ... ... The proposal to militarize our
youth goes hand in hand with steps
toward the militarization of the nation
as a whole, and the sacrifice of the
people's living standards to the requirements of a war economy * * *
Those who today make our bipartisan
foreign policy seek to * * * unloose a war of aggression against the
Soviet Union and the East-European
democracies. (Testimony submitted on
April 2, 1948, to the Senate Armed
Services Committee, in behalf of the
Communist Party; Political Affairs,
May 1948, pp. 412 and 415).
End the "cold war," the draft, and the
huge military budget * * * (1948
Election Platform of the CP USA;
Political Affairs, September 1948, p.
938).

The proposed military mobilization,
if approved by Congress, will greatly
accelerate our steady drift toward war
* * * The President's message calling for the draft_and universal military
training has presented no facts to support his charge that American security
is threatened * * * no facts have
yet been adduced to support the charges
of aggression or intervention levelled at
the Soviet Union (Statement on Conscription and Universal Military Training by the National Lawyers Guild,
April 16, 1948).
The United States Congress should
"repudiate the concept of compulsory
peacetime military training and repeal
the Selective Service Act of 1948 and
then reduce appropriations for military
expenditures, applying the saving thereby produced to programs needed for the
improvement of housing, health, education, social security, and the conservation of national resources" (National
Lawyers Guild Convention Resolution,
February 1949; Lawyers Guild Review,
vol. IX, No.1, Winter 1949, p. 56).

12. VOORHIS ACT
(EXPLANATORY NOTE.-The Voorhis Act provides for the registration of certain
organizations within the United States which are under foreign control. It was
followed by the formal disaffiliation of the Communist Party, U. S. A., from the
Communist International for the specific purpose of evading the act.)
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S.

A.

The Voorhis bill - - "is such a diabolical attack on all trade-unions peace
and progressive organizations that they
dare not give the people any notice
* * * no time can be lost, if another
blitzkrieg against civil rights is to be
prevented." Demand "that the Voorhis Act be killed" (Editorial, Daily
Worker, July 3, 1940, p. 6, c. 1).

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

* * * the bill is an invasion on
the civil liberties and political freedom
of American citizens and should be defeated (Statement of the Committee on
Civil Rights and Liberties of the National Lawyers Guild, Daily Worker,
August 2, 1940, p. 2, c. 3-4).

36

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

B.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

1. CHINA

(EXPLANATORY NOTE.-The line of the Soviet Union and the Communist
Party, U. S. A., in 1945 veered against the Chiang Kai-shek Nationalists regime,
for open support of the Chinese Communists and against American support of the
Nationalists.)
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

Workers in the factories, farmers,
church groups, all the great democratic
organizations of the American people
must protest the use of American arms
and American personnel in the effort
of the Chungking dictatorship to uproot
and destroy Chinese democracy (Avert
Civil War in China, Frederick V. Field,
Political Affairs, September 1945, p.
850).
An aroused American people can
check the aggressive, interventionalist
drive of U. S. imperialism along a course
that can only lead to a new world
slaughter * * *
Stop the reactionary intervention of
the U. S. A. in Chinese internal affairs.
Repudiate and recall Hurley and
Wedemeyer.
Withdraw American Troops from
China.
Speed demobilization and bring the
boys home. (Stop American Intervention in China, Rob Fowler Hall,
Political Affairs, December 1945, pp.
1067-1068).
Let us end U. S. bribing of Kuomintang reaction and clear our armed
forces out of China. (U. S. Imperialist
Intervention in China, B. T. Lo,
Political Affairs, July 1946, p. 613).
A democratic American policy for
China must include immediate withdrawal of all U. S. military forces,
advisors, equipment, and installations
from Chinese soil and Chinese waters.
It must cease all financial, industrial,
and political aid to the reactionary
Nanking government. All forms of relief
to China must be stopped because they
directly aid Chiang's civil war. The
promises of support to a democratic
coalition government should be made,
but it should not be given effect until
such a government has replaced the type
of regime which now seeks to control the
country (The New China Program of the
American Interventionists, Frederick V.
Field, Political Affairs, January 1948,
p.63).
* * * we must now help organize
the widest support and nation-wide
demonstrative activity * * * to
render the most complete political,
moral, and economic aid to the people's
democratic movement in China, Latin

The National Lawyers Guild was one
of 15 organizations represented at a
meeting November 28, 1945, in the
office of U. S. Representative Hugh
.De Lacy to discuss the fight for an
"anti-Chinese intervention resolution"
offered in Congress the previous Monday
by Representative De Lacy and five
other West Coast representatives (Daily
Worker, November 29, 1945, p. 2).

Withdraw all American armed forces
from China (Resolution on American
Foreign Policy, Seventh National Convention, National Lawyers Guild, July
4-7, 1946; Lawyers Guild Review, vol.
VI, No.2, May-June 1'946, p. 518).

A resolution adopted at the February
1948 convention of the National Lawyers Guild urged that"1. Aid be given to the Chinese
people without regard to their geographical location or political beliefs.
"2. Such aid should be given only
through an agency created by the United
Nations in accordance with the principles which governed the operation of
U. N. R. R.. A., and
"3. The United States should immediately withdraw all military and
naval personnel from China, and cease
operation of air bases and naval installations in that country" (Lawyers Guild
Review, vol. VIII, No.1, JanuaryFebruary 1948, p. 317).

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

America, and Greece' (The role of the
Communist Party in the Present Situation, Eugene Dennis, Political Affairs,
March 1948, p. 211).
The following major issues confront
the people in the present election
struggles:
* * * for withdrawal of all American military aid and personnel from
Greece, China, and Turkey * * *
(Draft Resolution for the National
Convention, C. P. U. S. A., Political
Affairs, June 1948, p. 501).
Stop military aid and intervention in
China, Korea, and Greece (1948 Election
Platform of the (Communist Party
Political Affairs, September 1948, p:
938).
Be assured, dear comrades, we shall
play our part in the united mass struggle
for effectuating the Cairo and Potsdam
agreements, for stopping Wall Street's
imp e ria lis t i n t e r v e n t ion
in China * * * (Political Affairs,
December 1948, p. 1140. From a telegram sent by the Communist Party,
U. S. A., to the "Glorious Communist
Party of China.")
This month, a new Congress convenes
in Washington. It is incumbent on the
American people, in the first place the
American labor and progressive movements, not to overlook this opportunity
to demand an end to all political, military and financial intervention in China.
The Chinese people must be allowed to
find their own way to freedom, independence, and democracy without
American interference in any guise (The
meaning of the Chinese Revolutionary
Victories, Frederick V. Field, Political
Affairs, January 1949, p. 73).
The American people have the duty
to raise the demand for the withdrawal
of all American armed forces and ships
from Chinese territory and waters; for
an end to all other support of the corrupt, decadent and counter-revolutionary elements; for an end to all imperialist intervention; for the defeat of all
current proposals for new aid to the
enemies of the Chinese people; for the
establishment of a real "Hands off"
policy toward China.
The common interest of the American
and Chinese peoples, and of world peace,
demands the complete recognition of the
new Chinese Democracy by the United
States Government and the establishment of normal trade relations on the
basis of equality (National Committee,
C. P., U. S. A., Salute to the Chinese
People's Victories, Political Affairs,
May 1949, pp. 1,2).

37

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

Resolution on China

* * * We urge an immediate economic ~nd to the cor;ttinuing military,
economiC, and other aid to the Koumintang regime. A great nation in Asia is
being reborn and unlimited opportunity
exists for restoring the immense reservoir of good will between the American
and Chinese people which was once and
should be again the keystone of our
relations.
We urge that immediate economic
ass!stance be giver;t to the impoverished
Chinese people without regard to their
geographical location or their political
beliefs, such assistance to be given
t~rough an a.gency of.. or in cooperation
wIth, the Umted NatIOns (Resolution of
February 1949, National Convention of
National Lawyers Guild, Lawyers Guild
Review, vol. IX, No.1, Winter 1949,
p.56).

38

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

2. EUROPEAN RECOVERY PROGRAM
COMMUNIST PARTY,

U.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

S. A.

* * * Giving Greece aid through
the United Nations---{)nly civilian, not
military aid-is the heart of the PepperTaylor idea. It reflects the popular
fear for the fate of the United Nations,
and it should get support from the widest circles, even those who may not agree
with Pepper or Taylor on other matters.
And the resolution should provide
that the United Nations give aid without strings attached and no help to the
monarchist-fascist regime. Failure to
mention these points weakens the resolution; we believe these provisions should
be added.
But the first thing is to stop the rush
on the Truman-Vandenberg monstrosity, and get full public hearings for the
alternative-the Pepper-Taylor resolution (Daily Worker, March 28, 1947, p.

7).

* * * Stop military aid and intervention in China, Korea, and Greece
* * * (Political Affairs, September
1948, pp. 938-939, Article: "1948 Election Platform of the Communist
Party").
* * * Scrap the Marshall Plan
and the Truman Doctrine. Furnish
large-scale economic assistance to the
war-ravaged victims of fascist attack.
Give this aid through the United Nations without political strings * * *
(Political Affairs. September 1P48, pp.
938-939, Article: "1948 Elect ion Platform of the Communist Party").

The violation of the Charter and the
bypassing of the United Nations are
fraught with grave consequences to world
peace. The legislation to implement
the President's proposals is violative of
the UN Charter, would tend to undermine the United Nations, and destroy
the only hope for world peace. Congress should reject the Greco-Turkish
aid bills * * * (Committee on International Law, National Lawyers
Guild, Lawyers Guild Review, vol. VII,
No.2, March-April 1947, p. 86).
The hearings on the bill indicate
that the European Recovery program
would retard rather than promote trade
and economic relations between the
countries of Eastern Europe and Western Europe and foster division among
the nations of the world.
ERP fails to fulfill the objectives of a
sound plan for genuine aid for European
reconstruction.
The unilateral approach of ERP is contrary to the sound policy of utilizing the
United Nations organization * * *
The direction of ERP may be gauged
in the light of Amel'ican Foreign
Policy of which it is a part. The Truman Doctrine, which remains in operation today, sanctions military intervention in Greece, Turkey, and China which
serves to maintain in power corrupt and
antidemocratic regimes (Lawyers Guild
Review, vol. VIII, No.1, JanuaryFebruary 1948, pp. 316, 317).

3. GERMANY
Boycott all goods to or from Germany,
Japan, and Italy. Refuse to load goods
on ships going to or coming from Germany, Italy, or Japan.
Not a ton of coal, not a barrel of
petroleum, not a bar of steel, nothing
for the troops of invasion and the traitor
Franco (Daily Worker, January 27,1939,
p.l).
Our government must be held to its
obligations under the Potsdam agreement for a Big Four settlement that will
assure a democratically unified Germany, able and willing to pay just reparations, and ready to rejoin the family
of democratic European nations. Any
other course, such as the present maneuvering for control of the Ruhr and
for a West European bloc under American cartel domination, would lead away
from peace and would strengthen the
forces of reaction here at home. (James
S. Allen, The Marshall Offensive for
Imperializing the RUhr, Political Affairs,
vol. XXVI, No. 8 (August 1947), p.
750).

The National Lawyers Guild * * *
urges the National :M;unitions Control
Board to terminate the practice of approving munitions exports to Germany
and further urges the National Munitions Control Board to modify its practice of denying the public access to approved licenses for munitions exports
(Resolution adopted at 3d Annual Convention of the National Lawyers Guild,
February 10-13, 1939; National Lawyers
Guild Quarterly, vol. 2, No.1, April
1939, p. 86).
Resolved that the Ruhr be placed
under four-power control as part of a
general settlement looking toward the
unification of Germany and the rebuilding of Europe for world peace (Resolution of National Lawyers Guild National Convention, February 1938;
Lawyers Guild Review, vol. 8, No.1,
January-February 1948, p. 318).

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

4.

39

INDONESIA

COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

Britain and America * * * are
acting to stifle all freedom movements
in India, Egypt, Indonesia, etc.
Support the national liberation struggles of the colonial and dependent
peoples (Statement issued on March 5,
1946, by the National Secretariat of the
Communist Party, USA. Political Affairs, vol. XXV, No.4 (April 1946), pp.
292,293).

The report of the Committee on In.
ternational Law and Relations, adopted
by the National Executive Board of the
Guild in February 1946 stated:
"7. We have given support to British-Dutch imperialism in Java and In.
donesia ·by supplying arms for the suppression of national movements in these
countries." (Lawyers Guild Review, vol.
VI, No.1 (January-February 1946), p.
~~
414).

5.

IRAN

The Myth of the Iranian "Dispute"
The so-called Iranian issue before the
Security Council was a fraud. By
March 26, when the Council began
discussing it, no dispute existed. The
myth of a "dispute" was systematically
fabricated by the American and British
governments in a deliberate attempt to
embarrass the Soviet Union * * * In
perpetrating this fraud the imperialists
had several interconnected motives.

* The
* *myth of the Iranian dispute was

invented partly in order to direct world
attention from these imperialist policies.
It was concocted as part of the entire
policy of US-British imperialism to
leave unfulfilled the agreements reached
at Moscow, Yalta, and Potsdam * * *
(Exploding the Iranian Myth, by
Frederick V. Field, Political Affairs,
May 1946, pp. 397, 398).
6.

The Guild's special committee on the
United Nations recommended April 13,
1946, that the Iranian question be
dropped from the agenda of the Security
Council in view of the declaration by
Premier Ahmad Ghavam of Iran, and
Premier Stalin that the controversy between Iran and the Soviet Union had
been settled to the satisfaction of both
nations.
The Committee also expressed the
opinion that the application of the
Soviet delegate to the Security Council
for an adjournment to April 10, should
have been granted without question,
thus eliminating "the friction and the
appearance of crisis which was propagated in the press" (New York Times,
April 14, 1946, p. 46).

KOREA

What we are faced with in the policy
of intervention against Chinese democracy is not a mere aberration in American foreign policy * * * It is part
of a general pattern of American imperialism's foreign policy which, while
adopting different tactical approaches
to different parts of the world, shows a
reactionary consistency throughout.
This explains * * * the imposition
of a coalition of the "Right" upon the
Koreans, the obliteration of a "Lidice"
in North China and the undermining of
Big Three unity and the authority of
the Security Council of the United
Nations
(Frederick V. Field, The
Record of American Imperialism in
China, Political Affairs, vol. XXV, No.1
(January 1946), p. 31).

Referring to U. S. foreign policy, the
National Lawyers Guild's Committee on
International Law and relations stated:
"We (the U. S. A.) have opposed the
national aspirations of the Korean
people" (Lawyers Guild Review, vol. VI,
No.1, p. 414 (January-February 1946»).

40

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

7.

ARGENTINA

COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

Certainly there can be no thought National Lawyers Guild Urges State
of inviting Argentina to attend the San
Department
Bar
Argentine
at
Francisco parley. And the American
Frisco
people through all their organizations
Washington, April 22.-Secretary of
must make this very clear in Washington (Daily Worker, April 11, 1945, State Stettinius was urged by the National Lawyers Guild this week to op.
(editorial), p. 6).
Molotov Fights Argentine Bid But pose membership of Argentina in the
Conference Approves Entry (Daily United Nations and to bar its participation in the San Francisco Conference
Worker (headline) May 1, 1945).
Break diplomatic relations with fas- (Daily Worker, April 23, 1945, p. 9).
cist Spain and Argentina
*.
Remove from the State Department Lawyers Ask U. S. Lead in Breaking
With Argentina
all pro-fascist and reactionary officials
(Resolution of the National Convention
Secretary of State Byrnes was urged
of the C. P., U. S. A., adopted .July 28, yesterday
by the National Lawyers
1945; Political Affairs, vol. XXIV, No. Guild to institute
joint consultation
9 (September 1945), p. 823).
Even under the liberal Roosevelt among the American Republics for
regime, when the Latin-American re- breaking diplomatic relations with Arpublics were accorded more democratic gentina. The Guild also called for the
treatment bv the United States Gov- removal of the State Department offiernment than ever before, the agents cials "responsible for the recognition of
of the great American trusts, most of the Farrell-Peron dictatorship," and
which were in violent opposition to urged that "their places * * * be
Roosevelt, busily cultivated fascist- taken by those who will steadfastly
minded reaction throughout Latin adhere to a policy of fighting fascist
America. Their most recent blows and pro-fascist forces and of advancing
against democracy (struck by two big democracy in the hemisphere and in
businessmen holding office in the State the world" (Daily Worker, August 9,
p. 8).
Department, Rockefeller and Stettinus) 1945,
We urge the following immediate
were to maneuver fascist Argentina into course
of conduct by our government.
the Pan-American Union and also into
Sever diplomatic relations with fascist
the United Nations * * * (Wil- Argentina and move to expel her from
liam Z. Foster, Letter to Luis Carlos UNO (Committee on International
Prestes, General Secretary, Communist
Party of Brazil, September 19, 1945; Law and Relations, National Lawyers
Lawyers Guild Review, vol. VI,
Political Affairs, vol. XXIV, No. 10 Guild,
No.1 (January-February 1946) p. 415)
(October 1945), p. 916).
8. MEXICO

* *

Full support for the Cardenas government of Mexico in its defense of democracy and its struggle against the financiers of fascism, the oil monopolies and
the Tory Chamberlain Governmp-nt
(William Z. Foster, Win the Western
Hemisphere for Democracy and Peace,
The Communist, vol. XVII, No.7 (July
1938), p. 614 (based on speech delivered
at the Tenth Convention of the C. P.,
U. S. A" New York, May 28, 1938».
The American imperialists dread the
growth of a great mass democratic,
peace, national liberation movement in
Latin America * * * They seek to
make the Good Neighbor policy an instrument of American imperialism, as
they did the old Monroe Doctrine, and
they are thus bringing the greatest pressure * * * upon
Roosevelt
to

Mexican Oil Expropriation
Whereas:
(1) The Mexican Government has
recently expropriated the oil properties
of American and other foreign corporations * * *
Now, therefore, be it resolved:
We request that the Government of
the United States shall not engage in
any acts of intervention on behalf of
said oil companies, because the action
of the Mexican Government in this
matter affords with respect to the oil
companies which have violated the laws
and defied the courts of Mexico no
ground for protest by the United States
(Resolution adopted at Third Annual
Convention of the National Lawyers
Guild at Chicago, February 10--13, 1939;

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

41

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

make the American government aggres- National Lawyers Guild Quarterly, vol. 2,
sively support their capitalist interests No.1 (April 1939), p. 86).
(Word-order of last lines in original
by violent measures against their imperialist rivals and against the Latin text was garbled.)
American peoples. This imperialist
pressure must be offset by democratic
pressure upon Roosevelt by the masses
in the United States and Latin America
(ibid., p. 612).
9. BRAZIL
The Fight for Prestes' Freedom Has Just Lawyers Guild Sends Member to Aid
Begun
Prestes-Will Act as Observer at Trial
of Brazil Popular Leader
The brutal sentence of 30 years imposed upon Luis Carlos Prestes by the
The Council for Pan American DeVarg"as regime in Brazil is a challenge, mocracy announced today that the
not only to the oppressed people of this National Lawyers Guild has decided to
South American country, but to labor send an observer to Brazil to extend legal
and the public here as well.
aid to the defense of Luis Carlos Prestes,
This is the second out-and-out frame- Chairman of the National Liberation
up against the Brazilian people's Alliance and leader of the democratic
"Knight of Hope." He has been lan- movement of Brazil.
guishing in jail under a 16-year sentence
The Council for Pan American Defor the political "crime" of uniting the mocracy has learned that the retrial of
people in the progressive National Liber- Prestes has been ordered by President
ation Alliance. The last conviction of Vargas of Brazil because of the desire of
Prestes and six of his coworkers was the Vargas dictatorship to secure, via
based on the fantastic slandep that he his Special Tribunal, a death sentence
was the "intellectual author" of the for Prestes.
murder of a 17-year-old girl.
This outrage heralds a fresh wave of
The National Lawyers Guild is now
attacks against labor and the Brazilian in communication with the Brazilian
people as the Vargas dictatorship sells Embassy in Washington to secure
out to the war plans of the Roosevelt official recognition for its observer, and
Administration and Wall Street.
to guarantee contact with Prestes and
Notwithstanding this long torturous attendance at his trial * * * (Daily
sentence against Prestes, the Vargas Worker, December 20, 1940, p. 2).
dictatorship had intended to murder
[The Council for Pan American
him instantly with a "legal" death decree. Democracy was cited by the U. S.
This was prevented by the wave of Attorney General as a Communist
protests which came from the Brazilian organization.]
people and from labor and liberals in
According to The Communist, vol.
the United States, Mexico, Cuba and XV, No. 11 (November 1936), p. 1076,
other American countries.
the Communist Party of Brazil issued
Once these protests are raised to the call for the formation of the abovegreater volume, they can remove Prestes mentioned National Liberation Alliance.
entirely from the fascist dungeons.
Demands for his freedom and that of
his co-workers, should deluge the
Brazilian embassy in Washington and
Vargas (Daily Worker, December 2,
1940, p. 6 (editorial)).
Continental Activity in Defense of
Prestes, Brazil's "Knight of Hope"
(By Dionisio Encina, General Secretary
of the Communist Party of Mexico)

*

*

*

*

*

The ferocious persecution organized
against him by Public Enemy No. 1
of the Brazilian people, Getulio Vargas,
is directed toward physically liquidat-

42

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

COMMUNIST PARTY,

U.

S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

ing the best-loved leader of the Brazilian
masses. * * *
By means of this trial it is hoped to
terrorize the revolutionary movement
in Brazil. * * *
The struggle for the liberation of
Prestes and his companions is a task
for the whole continental anti-imperialist movement. * * *
We can talk, write, agitate, organize
meetings and demonstrations. We can
bring up problems b trade-union
meetings, in political, women's,_ youth,
sport or cultural reunions. We can
demand the intervention of our governments against dictator Vargas. We
can raise the matter, as in Mexico, in
our Parliaments. We can mobilize the
lawyers so that they will expose the
monstrous legal procedure of the Tribunal of National Safety and the intellectuals in order that they may raise
their voices in indignation. * * *
Among us, throughout the continent,
there should be a revolutionary movement for Luis Carlos Prestes and his
comrades (Daily Worker, December 26,
1940, p. 6).
(By way of identification of Prestes,
it may be noted that on September 19,
1945, William Z. Foster, Chairman of
the Communist Party, U. S. A., wrote
to "Luis Carlos Prestes, General Secretary, Communist Party of Brazil"
(October 1945) Political Affairs, vol.
XXIV, No. 10, p. 913)).
10. NEW DEMOCRACIES
EXPLANATORY N OTE.-The international Communist press refers to the
Communist governments of Eastern Europe and Asia as "new democracies."
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. B. A.
NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
The facts are that in Eastern EuThe United States continues to use
rope-in Poland, Czechoslovakia, diplomatic and economic weapons to
Roumania, Hungary, Bulgaria and discourage the development of new
Yugoslavia--now anti-fascist democ- forms of democratic government in
racies are arising. In these countries Poland, Yugoslavia, Roumania, and
the U. S. S. R. has great prestige and Bulgaria. A recent example of this
mass influence. It enjoys this because interventionist policy is the threat of
the Soviet Union respects the national Ambassador Arthur Bliss Lane to the
sovereignty of these nations, encourages Polish Government that we would withand abides by the democratic processes hold economic assistance if Poland conof the peoples and their anti-fascist tinued to carry out a domestic program
decisions. * * *
of appropriation of certain large indusIt is the Soviet Union, with its pacts tries. Another example is the implied
of collective security with her East threat of withdrawal of diplomatic
European neighbors, as with France, recognition of Yugoslavia unless inChina and Britain, which * * * ternal policy was made to conform with
obstructs the way to reactionary Bloc our concepts. In both these instances
formations, including that of the pro- our activities have been directed against
jected Western Boc-an ill-disguised the democratic groups which most
cover for a renewed cordon sanitaire.. * * * actively participated in the resistance
The Anglo-American bloc postpones to Nazi occupation, and we provided
or refuses to recognize, and hence to encouragement to the forces of collabreach diplomatic agreements with, most oration in their efforts to reconstitute
of the democratic anti-fascist govern- a cordon sanitaire around the Soviet
ments that have come to power in these Union (Report of the Committee on

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

A.

countries. The United States and
Britain intervene in a reactionary way
in the popular elections and democratic
processes in these countries. Alternately, they withhold or withdraw
diplomatic recognition or necessary
UNRRA aid, and refuse to grant adequate credits or loans on a democratic
basis (Eugene Dennis, The London
Conference, Political Affairs, vol. XXIV,
No. 11 (November 1945), pp. 967, 968).

43

International Law and Relations;
adopted by the National Executive
Board of the Guild at its meeting in
Washington, D. C., February, 1946;
Lawyers Guild Review, vol. VI, No. I
(January-February 1946), p. 414).
-

11. PHILIPPINE REPUBLIC
The people need a stop put to military interference in China, repeal of the
Ball Act hamstringing real Philippine
independence, freedom for Puerto Rico,
long-term loans to non-fascist countries
that need them without regard to political maneuvering, ratification of peace
treaties jointly arrived at with other
members of the Big Three (The Worker,
January 5, 1947, p. 3).

To help maintain the sovereign independence of the Philippine Republic
and the development of good neighborly
_
relations, we recommend:
1. Repeal of the Philippine Trade
Act of 1946.
2. Repeal of Section 601 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1946 which made
payment of war damages conditional on
Philippine acceptance of the Trade Act.
3. Execution of a trade agreement
with long-time credits providing for the
exchange of Philippine products for
American industrial equipment (Lawyers Guild Review, vol. VII, No.1,
January-February 1948, pp. 317, 318).

12. PUERTO RICO
Grant immediate national independEnact legislation acknowledging the
ence to Puerto Rico (Draft Resolution complete rights of independence of
of the National Board, CPA, as amend- Puerto Rico with economic assistance
ed and approved by the National Com- (Lawyers Guild Review, vol. VI, No.2,
mittee on June 20, 1945; Political Af- May-June 1946, p. 518).
fairs, July 1945, p. 584).
To begin with, the United States must
concede the full right of self-determination to Puerto Rico, without any "ifs,"
"ands," or "buts." In doing this, the
United States must also grant the necessary funds to the Puerto Rican people
as indemnification for their long colonial status, as well as make trade agreements of such a character that Puerto
Rico may prosper economically (U. S.
Relations with Latin America, William
Z. Foster; Political Affairs, March 1946,
p.209).
13. AMERICAN NEUTRALITY
(EXPLANATORY NOTE.-Prior to World War II, when the Soviet Union feared
Nazi aggression, the line of the Communists was prowar, against neutrality and
for a united front of the democracies against Fascism.)
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.
NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
The camp of peace faces the problem
The June 1938 issue of the National
of organizing a serious mass movement Lawyers Guild Quarterly (p. 255) urged
against war and fascism. * * * the repeal of the existing Neutrality
This problem will be solved in the first Act, while the September 1938 issue
instance by breaking down the concep- (p. 304) opposed ammunition shipments
tion of isolation and neutrality as the to Germany. The third national conroad to peace and by preparing the vention of the guild held in Chicago,
masses for active collaboration with the February 10-13, 1939, urged "the

44

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

COMMUNIST PARTY, U.

S.

A.

peace forces of the world upon the basis
of a real international policy of peace
(Excerpts reprinted from the Daily
Worker of July 3,1937, from the Central
Committee Resolution on the Report of
Earl Browder, National Secretary of the
Communist Party of the United States).

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
National Munitions Control Board to
terminate the practice of approving
munitions exports to Germany" (National Lawyers Guild Quarterly April
1939, p. 86); warned against "Fascist
economic and ideological penetration in
Mexico"; and condemned "German
military aggression in Spain."
September 1937 issue of the Guild
News, official organ of its New York
chapter (p. 4) : "The Executive Committee has decided that our present neutrality legislation must be condemned for its
marked deficiences and has passed a
resolution urging Congress to amend
the embargo provisions of the Act so
as to make them applicable only to
aggressors * * *. The Committee
has also decided to call upon the President to apply the existing provisions of
the Neutrality Act to Itl!oly and Germany on the ground that they are engaged in a state of war with the legitimate Government of Spain."

14. WORLD WAR II As IMPERIALIST
(EXPLANATORY NOTE.-The Communist Party, USA, denounced the war as
imperialist as soon as the Stalin-Hitler Pact was signed on August 23, 1939.)
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

The Communist Party has issued as
the slogan of the day: "Keep America
Out of the Imperialist Warl" In this
slogan are implicit what we consider the
only correct answers to all those pressing
questions about this war.
The course of events since the signing
of the Soviet-German Non-Aggression
Pact has confirmed a hundred times over
the correctness of that action from every
point of view except that which incorrigibly against mountains of evidence, considers Chamberlain and the
British Empire the full and sufficient
foundation for international order and
world peace (Speech of Earl Browder,
General Secretary, Communist Party,
USA, delivered at Town Hall, Philadelphia, September 29, 1939).
For the flower of the American youth
the right to life itself is challenged by
those who claim the privilege to conscript them and to throw them into
reactionary war for the benefit of the
propertied classes. * * * But with
11,000,000 Americans unemployed, the
Democratic Party Administration is
sacrificing all social legislation, unemployment and old-age insurance and
educational guarantees for the youth,
in order to pour all resources of the
nation as well as the blood of our people
into tile scramble of monopoly capital
for domination of the world (Election

The following active leaders of the
National Lawyers Guild, members of
the lawyers committee to keep the
United States out of war, attended the
Emergency Peace Mobilization. From
there they sent the President a telegram
of protest to condemn the Burke-Wadsworth conscription bill as "unconstitutional and as representing a violent
upheaval in the social, political and
economic life of our country" and as
"a direct step toward American involvement in war": Samuel M. Blinken, Leo
Linder, Edward Lamb, Pearl M. Hart,
Abraham J. Isserman, Maurice Sugar,

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
COMMUNIST PARTY,

U.

S. A.

45

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

Platform of the Communist Party, and Martin Popper, Secretary of the
guild (Daily Worker, September 4, 1940,
1940 (p. 3».
p.3).
The fourth annual convention of the
As events have shown, the joint
"national unity" drive of the war- guild, held May 29,30, and June 1, 1940,
mongering social reformists and the denounced alleged attempts to use the
bourgeoisie has not been crowned with European war as a "shield to cover
too much success. * * * The anti- repression and as an excuse for reaction"
imperialist stand of the American (Daily Worker, June 2, 1940).
Youth Congress, the National Negro
In line with the guild's policy of proCongress, and the nation-wide Emer- tecting those engaged in retarding the
gency Peace Mobilization at Chicago, national defense effort were the resoluetc., bear eloquent testimony to this tions adopted at the meeting of its
* * * This explains, in part, the national executive board on February
discrepancy between the mass opposi- 22,24, 1941, against the Model Sabotage
tion which has developed against the Prevention Act, compulsory arbitration
interventionist moves and unneutral in labor disputes, cooling-off periods
acts of the government and Congress in before resorting to the strike, and antiforeign affairs, and, above all, to the strike legislation (Lawyers Guild Remilitary conscription bill, and the view, March 1941, pp. 26 to 29).
The position I have taken excludes, of
limited opposition registered against the
colossal armaments program and the course, the notion that labor disputes
dictatorial "national emergency" powers shall be settled by compulsory arbitragranted to and exercised by the Presi· tion or that they shall be restrained by
dent (Eugene Dennis in The Com- "Work or Fight Orders." These methmunist, September 1940, pp. 822, 823). ods are unnecessary as they are unKeep America Out of the Imperialist desirable (Harry Sacher in the Lawyers
Warl Oppose all war loans and credits Guild Quarterly, December 1940, p. 28).
to the imperialist warmakers and their
lackeys. Repudiate the militarization
and armaments program (Resolution of
the National Committee of the Communist Party, USA, from The Communist, March 1940, p. 215).
Following the Stalin-Hitler pact, the
Communist Party denounced the war
as "imperialist"; urged a policy of isolation; opposed the national defense
program, conscription, and aid to the
Allied Nations. It played the leading
role in building up the American Peace
Mobilization which picketed the White
House and in strikes in defense industries such as Allis-Chalmers, International Harvester, North American
Aviation, and Vultee Aircraft.
15. SECOND FRONT
(EXPLANATORY NOTE.-Immediately after Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union,
Communist forces throughout the world demanded the immediate opening of a
Second Front, although these forces had opposed the war as imperialistic prior
to that time.)
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

While Hitler flings everything into
the Eastern Front, labor should urge
Washington and London to smash
Hitler in the West (Daily Worker,
October 9, 1941, p. 1).

"Robert W. Kenny, President of the
Guild, sent a letter to President Roosevelt recently declaring that the N ational Executive Board of the Guild by
an overwhelming majority had adopted

46

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

It is our war and it must be won. It a statement urging the opening of a
must be won in the battle of produc- second front in Europe without delay."
tion, in the battle of delivery, and in (The latter is quoted-no date giventhe battle of arms for the annihilation and a copy of the statement is set forth;
of the enemy * * * It means an it is quoted in part:)
"It seems clear to us that if the
all-out participation in the Battle of the
Atlantic, for its eastern shores, for the present advance of the Axis forces in
freedom of the seas. It means all the Soviet Union is not stopped, victory
measures necessary to bring about the for the United Nations will at least be
opening of a new front in Western delayed for many years with the
Europe (The Communist, vol. XX, No. enormous cost in human life and
sacrifice that will entail. Indeed we
11 (November 1941), pp. 956, 957).
For a Second Front in Europe! (The believe that the security and independence of our nation is critically at
Communist, April 1942, p. 199).
Open A Western Front in Europe! stake. It seems evident to us that only
the immediate opening of a second
(The Communist, May 1942, p. 296).
* * * fight for and demand the front will make it possible to assure
opening of a Second Front against the victory of the United Nations
Hitler in Europe immediately (The * * *" (Lawyers Guild Review, Vol.
II, No. V (September 1942) p. 45.
Communist, June 1942, p. 401).
The demand for the Second Front for Article: "The Guild and the Second
the all-out offensive to smash Hitler in Front").
1942, embraces ever wider circles of the
population and becomes more insistent
(The Communist, July 1942, p. 488).
No Delay in Opening the Western
Front! (The Communist, August 1942,
p. 579).
It is time to Open the Western Front
Against Hitler Without Further Delay
(The Communist, September 1942, p.
675).
16. SPAIN

* * * Break diplomatic and economic ties with Franco-Spain * * *
(1948 Election Platform, CP-USA,
Political Affairs, September 1948, pp.
938-939).

17.

The National Lawyers Guild called
for "severance of all economic and
diplomatic relations with Franco Spain"
(National Lawyers Guild, Convention
Resolutions, February 1949. Lawyers
Guild Review, Winter 1949, p. 56).
(Vigorous opposition to Franco by
both the Communist Party and the
National Lawyers Guild, throughout
the period of instant survey, is a matter
of public record.) Daily Worker; The
Communist; Political Affairs; National
Lawyers Guild Quarterly; Lawyers
Guild Review.

SOVIET UNION

Osmond K. Fraenkel, Guild Vice
Red Army hurls back invading Finnish troops, crosses frontier (Daily President, was quoted as saying that the
Worker (headline), December 1, 1939, National Executive Board in December
1939 denounced the Soviet invasion of
p. 1).
Finland (New York Times, June 6,
1940, p. 27).
Wall Street Uses Finland for War
The newspapers of the country are
giving the American people a heavy dose
of war propaganda on the latest developments in Finland.
The press has obviously determined
to drug the intelligence of the American
people, to paralyze all common-sense

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
CO~IMUNIST

PARTY, U. S. A.

questioning in a wave of war hysteria
aimed at the Soviet Union.
The remembered lies of the press on
the Munich "peace" are being surpassed.
The plain truths are twisted or
ignored.
The Finnish bourgeois-landlord rulers,
incited and supported by world imperialism, continued their violations of the
Soviet borders-they attacked at two
points yesterday morning. They were
repulsed by the Soviet Union which took
the necessary steps in defense of its
national interest.
It is the sheerest hypocrisy for the
press to pretend moral indignation at
"a little country" engaged with a "big
country like the Soviet Union." They
know that behind the Finnish ruling
cliques stand the mighty forces of British and American imperialism, goading,
encouraging, supporting the hostile acts
of Finland.
The Finnish bourgeois-landlord cliques
were willing to play this role of provocateur. They stood at the Soviet borders
holding open the doors of war. The
Soviet Union yesterday closed the doors.
No war dogs of world imperialism will
pass through (Daily Worker, December
1, 1939 (editorial), p. 1).
Forge the friendship and peaceful cooperation of the American-Soviet-British coalition and all the freedom-loving
peoples * * * (Statement issued
March 5, 1946, by National Secretariat
of the Communist Party, Political
Affairs, April 1946, p. 291).
End the "cold war" * * * Restore American-Sovie't friendship, the
key to world peace and the fulfillment
of the people's hope in the United Nations * * * (Political Affairs, September 1948, pp. 938-939, Article, 1948
Election Platform of the Communist
Party).

47

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

Take steps to restore Anglo-AmericanSoviet unity as the cornerstone of cooperation among the United Nations
* * * (Lawyers Guild Review, vol.
VI, No.2, May-June 1946, p. 518).

* * * The revitalization of cooperative relations among the great powers
and especially between the United
States and the Soviet Union, points the
path to peace. To aid in the revitalization of the cooperative relations among
the great powers it is imperative that
the United States and the Soviet Union
compose their differences in the briefest
possible time and lay the groundwork
for the composing of differences among
other nations and thus advance the
cause of peace and the principles and
purposes of the United Nations.
* * * Adherence to the principle
of concurrence and cooperation will
eliminate the need to consider measures
inconsistent with the spirit of the United
Nations, such as the contemplated
North Atlantic Pact or any other military arrangement by any powers which
may breed hostility and suspicion
* * * (Lawyers Guild Review, vol.
IX, No.1, Winter 1949, pp. 55-56).

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THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
18.

ATLANTIC PACT

COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

Despite all threats and persecutions
The Guild adopted a "Resolution on
we will continue resolutely to work for the Cold War in the Light of the New
peace. Instead of an aggressive North Concept of International Law" which
Atlantic Pact-a resurrected anti-Com- called for an end to the "cold war" and
munist Axis-we shall continue, in the "revitalization of cooperative relacompany with millions of other Ameri- tions among the great powers and escans, to urge that our nation shall sign a pecially between the United States and
Pact of Friendship and Peace with our the Soviet Union." "Adherence to the
great wartime ally, the Soviet Union principles of concurrence and coopera(Political Affairs, April 1949, p. 4; tion will eliminate the need to consider
article: "Is the Advocacy of Peace measures inconsistent with the spirit
Treason?" by William Z. Foster and of the United Nations, such as the conEugene Dennis).
templated North 'Atlantic Pact or any
American trade-unionists, workers, other military arrangement * * *"
all progressives and peace-loving Ameri- (Lawyers Guild Review, Vol. 9, No.1,
cans must make their voices heard. Winter 1949).
End the cold war! Scrap the Atlantic
Alliance for aggression! Defend the
hard-won democratic rights of the
people!
Stop the war preparations!
Jobs and homes-not guns! For an
American-Soviet Peace Pact! (Political
Affairs April 1949, p. 17; article:
"The Struggle for Peace" by Marvin
Reiss).
19. ATOMIC ENERGY
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

Put an end to atom bomb diplomacy
which is paving the way to World
War III.
The Churchill-Byrnes-Truman * * *
"outlook is to impose their will on the
world, including the Soviet Union, by
overwhelming military power based on
the atom bomb (Statement issued on
March 5, 194~ by the National Secretary of the vommunist Party, USA;
Political Affairs, vol. XXV, No. 4
(April 1946), pp. 292-293).
What a country does on a specific
issue at home is a pretty good index to
how it treats the same issue in its foreign
policy. This is particularly true of our
government's policy on the international control of atomic energy.
The Baruch PlB.n was designed by the
Same men who have established monopoly-control over atomic energy at
home
* * * Their objective
plainly discernible in the domestic and
international control policy, is to retain
the monopoly of atomic energy at
home and abroad, for war or for peace.
Here is to be found the real obstacle to
atomic disarmament and the effective
outlawing of the atomic bomb (Daily
Worker, Nov. 4, 1946, p. 6; article:
"The Trustified Atom' by James
Allen).

The National Lawyers Guild reportedly (1) criticized American secrecy
concerning atomic bomb, (2) urged that
control of atomic energy be placed with
the UN Security Council, (3) stated
U. S. Atomic bomb policy "has antagonized the Soviet Government, alarmed
the French Government and created
disquiet among the English" (Daily
Worker, December 27, 1945).
Our insistence upon maintaining a
monopoly of the "secret" atomic bomb
manufacture has caused widespread
doubt, throughout the world, regarding
our peaceful intentions (Lawyers Guild
Review, vol. VI, No.1, p. 415, JanuaryFebruary 1946).

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

* * *

The main forces in the
world today are: * * * the camp
. of the monopolists who are plotting
atomic war and the world-wide peoples'
camp of peace in which the Socialist
Soviet Union plays the leading role
(Political Affair-~, April 1949, pp. 6466; article: "The Atom Bomb; Myth
and Truth" by Joseph Clark).

20.

* * *

We proposed: That our
government announce its immediate
readiness to enter into an international
agreement providing for the prompt
destruction of all atomic weapons and
all other weapons adaptable to mass
destruction and the complete cessation
of all further production thereof. The
international agreement should provide
for establishing effective compliance
with its provisions and prescribe sanctions for violation thereof. The abolition of the veto power should not be
required as a condition to reaching an
agreement on atomic energy (Lawyers
Guild Review, May-June 1946, p. 521).

BRETTON WOODS

The labor movement must speak up
for the Bretton Woods plan as a whole,
and demand that it be reported out of
committee intact. The rest of the world
is watching the United States on this
issue. Our allies will not believe that
we have abandoned political isolation
if we still permit the narrow, private
interests of a handful of bankers to
keep us bound to economic nationalism.
* * * The passage of the Bretton
Woods Plan before April 25, certainly
during the San Francisco conference,
is the best way of guaranteeing the
parley's success
(Editorial,
Daily
Worker, April 6, 1945, p. 6).
The failure to ratify the Bretton
Woods agreement, without crippling
amendments, would speed up the tendencies revealed by the aviation conference. * * * (From Teheran to
Crimes, by Joseph Starobin, Political
Affairs, March 1945, p. 219).

21.

49

During April 1945, the National
Lawyers Guild in San Francisco sponsored a series of talks, under the direction of Benjamin Dreyfus of the San
Francisco Chapter. The talks were
reported to have followed the Russian
views that the Dumbarton Oaks agreement should not be amended and that
the Bretton Woods proposals should
be adopted as they were.

DUMBARTON OAKS AGREEMENT

(Please see material set forth immediThe Dumbarton Oaks draft provides
for the settlement of disputes on a re- ately above under the caption, "Bretton
gional basis, where possible. But only Woods.")
with the prior authorization of the
Security Council itself. We oppose any
changes in this respect (Editorial, Discussing Dumbarton Oaks, Daily Worker,
March 19, 1945, p. 6),
The trade-unions must be particularly
alert to back up the Dumbarton Oaks
and Bretton Woods proposals, without
emasculating amendments. These are
the very heart of the Crimean postwar
program, and it would be a disaster if
the reactionary opposition were allowed
to devitalize them as it is now trying to
do (Article: "The Danger of American
Imperialism in the Postwar Period,"
William Z. Foster, Political Affairs,
June 1945, p. 499).

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THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

22.

YALTA-POTSDAM

COMMUNIST PARTY, U. S. A.

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

The immediate basic cause for the
deterioration of relations between the
Soviet Union and the British-American
imperialists lies in the fact that Britain
and America have refused to carry out
the Yalta and Potsdam pledges.
Britain and America have refused to
denazify Germany and crush feudal militarist reaction in Japan. They have
refused to let the small countries of
Europe decide their own fate. They
are acting to stifle all freedom movements in India, Egypt, Indonesia, etc.
Carrying out the Yalta-Potsdam
agreements would restore Big Three
peaceful working relationships (Statement of the Secretariat, CP-USA, Poli~
ical Affairs, April 1946, p. 292).

'" * * at Yalta a new epoch in
international law was unfolded through
the establishment of the principle of the
concurrence or unanimity of the Great
Powers * * *.
But it was at San Francisco soon after
the present administration took office
that the country first witnessed a whole
series of official actions constituting a
departure from the policies to which the
United States had subscribed in the
Atlantic Charter and at Moscow, Teheran, Yalta, and Dumbarton Oaks * * *.
The National Lawyers Guild vigorously opposed the whole policy of the
United States delegation as a flagrant
violation of the spirit and content of
United Nations unity (Resolution of the
Committee on International Law and
Regulations, National Lawyers Guild,
Lawyers Guild Review, January-February 1946, pp. 412-413).
* * * since February, the pattern
of our foreign policy has not been
altered. The present trend can and
must be halted '" '" * we urge the
following immediate-course of conduct
by our government: "
Take steps to restore Anglo-AmericanSoviet unity * * *.
Fulfill the Potsdam agreement to
complete the destruction of Nazism and
militarism. Bring to trial German industrialists as war criminals '" '" *.
Establish an international war crimes
tribunal for the prosecution and punishment of Japanese war criminals, including Japanese industrialists and the
Emperor.
Extend financial credits to nations in
need without interference in their internal affairs (National Lawyers Guild
Convention Resolutions, July 1946,
Lawyers Guild Review, May-June 1946,
pp. 517-518).

o